Doom: The Plutonia Experiment
by Ferrebee
Summary: The Showdown Begins! Rated M for Mature themes.
1. Prolouge: Dreams and Reality

Slowly my eyes turned to face the monstrosity that was the CyberDemon. He stopped shooting his massive rocket launcher and he himself looked. Surely I saw a look of terror on its face as it slowly lurched around and aimed its rockets at the even larger demon spawn. Surely the mother of all demons in my eyes...

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Then I woke up.

Another pointless dream that I had thought up late at night...

Welcome to the Valkeirie-Class Battle Cruiser Ebony. Also known as U.S.S Ebonson. A.K.A: The longest 3 years I've been away from Earth...A seemingly pointless expedition to a secluded space port in the middle of nowhere this side of the solar system. Why I got assigned to this job? Only the big man upstairs and the Commanding General of the United States Army knows.

My name is Sid Armas. Segeant First Class, U.S. Army Rangers. 2nd Battalion. I'm in command of 30 others under me, who all give me the respect I deserve. I've been a veteran of 3 major conflicts and came out with battle scars to tell my children...my non-existant children. I've been so on the ball lately that I've forgotten about my future...Which is none, to say the least. No Wife, No Girlfriend, not even an admirer or a love interest. I've been so busy for the 15 years I've worked in the U.S Army. 35 is not a lucky number to be in command of others, but then again, I've been BSed out of so many promotions that its not even funny...I should be a damned colonel by now! But life goes on...

I had fallen asleep at about midnight. Its Saturday now...here at least I know how long its been since Saturday passes by. Lucky for us rangers, we don't have to work 24-7-365 (366 for leap years) like some marines I know...Sure, they're the first to fight, but we're there to fix up the shit they fucked up. I don't care what anyone says about the Marine Corps, they're just a bunch of cannon fodder to me...But then, I almost joined up in the Anchors and Globes until I found out that my job specification wasn't allowed in the marines...So I joined in the Green Boys. Heavy Infantry. If you need some more HOOAH, you've come to the right place.

It was 2:30 A.M...nobody should be up this late anyway, I had mumbled to myself. Just then, as if some one above was using the entire cruiser as a puppet show, there was a knock on my cabin door.

Speak of the devil...

"Come in," I had said quickly, rolling out of bed and suddenly losing my footing, slamming on the cold metal floor. I groaned in pain. "I'll be fine...Just come in."

The door had opened, the corridor light showing a female figure. "Hmm...you from the Command Deck? Because if so, its Saturday, and we don't do anything on Saturdays or Sundays...Go ask a leather-neck for some help..." When I had looked at the figure more clearly, I knew I should have held my tounge right then and there.

It was my Lieutenant.

"M'am, Sorry. I thought you were with the Command Crew..." I quickly said, standing up and snapping to attention. She looked at me curiously and shook her head.

"As you were, Sergeant. Don't worry about it. I've been getting that lately...Anyway, I need to let you know that we're T-minus 24 hours from our destination...you do know where that is...Right Sid?"

I had already relaxed and sat down on the bed, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, taking a drag. "Well...since we're going by names now...I suppose I should say that I do understand, Naomi."I said sharp and to the point.

My Lieutenants' name was Naomi Sheridan. She had followed a 6 year generation of military service, starting with her ancestors in the first World War...She had grown up a military brat and it showed in her demanor of "I want this done and now!" attitude. I had always suspected she had a crush on me, but for some reasons, I couldn't pin it down. A 25 year old red head from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her Southern accent was always a warm welcome in my head. Something about it brought me at ease, even when we were under fire together. I thought of her as a good friend and as my superior. I always had given her the respect she deserved.

By this point she had closed the door and sat on the bed next to me. I couldn't see her but I knew she could see me, due to the embers of the burning tobacco. She pulled the cigarette out of my mouth and put it out on the small dresser on my left, suddenly pinning me down and giving me a deep, hard kiss. As she pulled back a bit, I looked up at her eyes. "What...what was that for?" I said quietly. She let a small smile pass before she put her cool finger to my lips. "Shh...Just relax Sid...I've wanted to do this for a long time..." She then slowly took off her sleeping tank top and exposed her breasts to me, then tossing the sheets over our heads and she begun to kiss me again...

By the time it was 10:47 A.M, I had opened my eyes to find that Naomi was still beside me, naked and asleep with her arm wrapped around me, snuggling close to me. I had looked her over once more. Her skin was a slight pale color, but it was silky smooth. Her hair that was usually rolled into a nice, orderly bun had been undone and was now exposing its true length to me. It went past her sholder blades, but stopped before it reached the midpoint on her back. It was draped over my stomach and chest, which was covered by the bedsheet I had forementioned earlier. As I looked at her, I couldn't help but let a small smile pass before I hid it away in that cold, quiet demanor I had. I was not a very talkative kid when I was younger, hell, I didn't talk at all during my childhood. But it didn't bother me none.

Her hand gently twitched against my chest as she opened her eyes and looked up at me. I let a small smile pass before she moved her neck upwards and kissed me softly. I was still getting used to that. "Morning Sergeant...Sid." She said smiling a bit. I couldn't help but smile back. I was keeping it to myself that it had been my first time with a woman, but I don't think she knew the difference. "Morning Naomi...You sleep alright?" I said as soft as possible into her ear. She simply laughed a bit and held me tight. I knew this would be the beginning of a new chapter in my life...but It wasn't the love session me and Naomi had the night before...No...It was something more. Something just beyond the horizon...

Suddenly, the klaxon alarm sounded, warning us of nearby danger.

"ALL HANDS, BATTLE STATIONS!"

((((End of Prolouge, Chapter 1 coming up soon. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW. Thanks so much. (Ferrebee)))))))


	2. Simple Beginnings

I suppose I was an idiot for not immediately getting up and throwing my uniform on, but Naomi and I were in no shape wanting to get up. But we did, and we did so quickly, you'd think we were back in boot camp. I can still remember vividly my first days in boot camp, when my drill sergeant, a Barney Verman had always roused me and the rest of the recruits of the 33rd Light Infantry battalion by walking into our bunk room with a sawed off shotgun and shooting it 3 times into the cieling. By the time we had graduated, there was a 4 foot gaping hole over the entrance.

"Ah damn it all," I muttered as I started to sit up. Naomi held me gently before she herself did the same and put her tanktop on and her pj bottoms.

"I'm going to be so late...I'll see you later Sid." She said so quickly, I almost didn't hear it. As she walked out my door, I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Not for anything in particular, just because I was in the mood to.

If you need to know, I have a dark sense of humor. Blame it on the many combat missions I was assigned to when I was a grunt. Yeah, I think you understand now.

Anyway, after 30 minutes had passed, we had assembled at the hangar, the only large place of the cruiser, a length and width of a total of 5 football fields. About big enough for a parade ground. We were standing there at attention, paying attention to our C.O, Major Chris Barret. A 68 year old man with faded blonde hair and aged blue eyes. He stood at a good 6'2, with a moustache to boot. He finally walked up to a microphone that was placed in front of him and he began to speak.

"Good morning, everyone...I know you were all anticipating the weekend, but we have recieved a distress call from a secluded military base, wich in an odd coincidence is the next checkpoint in our journey. So, You all have 4 hours to get into combat gear and find your designated launch craft. I will give your instructions when the time comes. You're dismissed."

As we fell out, we started to make arrangements to meed at the same place in 3 hours. So we went back to our bunks to change.

The standard issue U-345 Pressurized Combat Suit is a revolutionary device in the armed forces. It is made with a synthetic fabric that attaches to the hosts' skin, thereby pressurizing the suit to keep the bodies' functions at 100 and beyond. It will make combat on the field that much easier. I hated the piece of shit. Nothing but 3 pounds of a tight green suit that was pulled over you and then shove a 10 pound hunk of kevlar and titanium over your chest and thighs. That was the battle armor. But I did like the gloves that came with it. Leather, my favorite. It had a nice tan color. I loved the feel of the gloves, which were tight and very comfortable. It gave me a bit of security when handling a shotgun or any kind of rifle. Another thing I hated about this hunk of military bullshit was the helmet. A chunk of synthetic polymers combined to make a shell for that holder of grey material we call a brain. To add insult to injury, It was confining. Only thing that came in or out of your mouth was air and your voice, which was hooked up to a small radio. Another thing was that I could only see from left to right and up and down. No periferal vision, which pissed me off. But then, If I survived by this piece of crap, then by God I'll save my breath for the enemy.

As we fell back into formation an hour later, another officer had directed us to our drop ships. As we filed into the large cruiser that would take us to our mission...and eventually, our deaths.

Naomi had sat next to me, since I was her highest ranking NCO. It wasn't that difficult to spot that she was still thinking about last night. I looked at her and she turned to look me in the eyes.

"Sid...about last night...I'm sorry I rushed you." She said to me.

"You don't have to worry about that...You didn't rush anything, Naomi. It was everything I had expected and more..." I said with a smile. She couldn't see it though. But she replied with a hand on my sholder and a light squeeze. I felt that slightly through my armor. Had I known what was going to happen in the future, I would have told her to stay off the drop ship...

After about an hour of just looking around the dropships' inside, flying through the emptyness of space. But after a few more minutes of contemplation, a voice crackled on the radio.

"Alright. You rangers keep your formations tight. The Marines are going in first, and then us, so just stick it out a bit."

...Great.

After another few minutes of hearing marine NCOs and officers barking out orders and giving status reports, another comment came on the radio. "Alright, rangers are coming in. Keep it tight and don't overlook the area..." A slight shaking of the dropship woke up our senses. "Alright," I shouted. "You boys and girls make sure that you're all woken up and locked and loaded! I want to see some feet hitting the ground! So when we touch down, hit the ground running!" I had then picked up my rifle and pulled back the hammer.

The AR-88 By H&K is our standard issue rifle. The shells that are used are high powered .50 Caliber hollowed tip rounds. It can dent a tank, no problem. Only downside: Its a single shot weapon. Only fires as fast as the soldier can squeeze the trigger. And here you thought it was a step ahead of evolution. Ha. Fooled you.

As the drop ship came to a halt and the back doors slid down to form a ramp, we ran out and quickly covered the perimiter. There was nothing there. Just us and the Marines and the facility we were to enter. We quickly formed into our assigned squads, with the exceptoiin of me, the platoon leader and 2 others, wich refused for some reason to say much. Heh, following in their sergeants' footsteps. I did know the men. One to my left was a tall black man. He carried our support weapon, a nice sized minigun which carried 400 .50 caliber rounds. I loved that weapon, and I even got to use it...many times, in fact. The man had a strange name. He imigrated from Kenya, so we just called him "Jeff." He took to it very nicely. The next man was a stocky japanese man. He stood at a short 5-foot-6 with the typical asian features. Tanaka Fujiko was his name.

We had already entered the compounds outer gates when we were caught by surprize by a sort of shadow running past us. I quickly turned and took a deep breath. Maybe nerves? No, thats never happened... Its just probably my imagination getting the best of me.

As I had suspected, we were already on the shores of hell.


	3. Congo

Before me and my squad could react, an explosion knocked us off our feet and into the ground after an 18 foot drop. I completely blacked out...The only thing I could remember hearing was some kind of growl, like a laugh of some sort...

Suddenly my breathing was audible...I heard and felt like I was out of breath...

As if a light switch was turned on, my vision came back to me, and the sight I saw was nothing I wanted to see. Dozens of marine and ranger bodies scattered around the compound area, a flat streach of concrete with some artificial grass just to make the place look nice. Nice is not what was going through my head at that moment. I quickly looked around for my rifle, but I found that it was gone, along with Naomi and the other 2 soldiers that were with us. I didn't say anything as I found a .45 handgun, with a nice stock of 7 clips to boot. Great, once again moving back _DOWN_ the evolution chain. I shook it off and holstered it before looking around for any other weapons that might be laying around. Nothing except the standard combat knife, and one was enough.

The outer compound wasn't as glitzy as they had told us when we were at Beijing port...But then, they didn't say too much about what was up...Nobody dared said a word about Earth in space...and on Earth, nobody said a damned thing about space. There was a reason for it all...but I just couldn't put my finger on it with the predicament I was in at that moment...

As I entered the gate leading inside the space ports' inner chambers, I found that I was in a Bio-Sphere, a research bubble used by the scientists to create life-like surfaces in the area, just to make the workers more at home...but it seemed that home was another thing not mentioned here. It was dead quiet...Nothing was heard. It was pissing me off. I had started to walk aimlessly, hoping to find a radio that worked...Mine was broken in the blast, and every one of those corpses back there had nothing on them except the uniforms and knives they were issued. It was starting to turn into a FUBAR mission. No contact to our superiors or field commanders, or even another grunt. And to top it all off, none of the dead bodies had their armor or weapons on them...someone, or _something_ is trying to stop us from being here, and since we refused to leave the moment we landed, _they_ decided to take matters into their own hands and force us to either die here or leave wounded. I for one decided to stay there and find out who the fuck was trying to mess with the U.S Armed Forces. Because one of two things happen. One. You get the fuck beaten out of you with high powered missles and the latest weapons blasting into your face and belly with over 400 rounds per minute on the motherfucker. Two. The initial ones who started the fight win, and the defenders die a horrible death...I preferred option one.

As I continued to walk, I lost my footing (AGAIN) and fell 8 feet off a ledge and onto rough hard limestone...Limestone...What the fuck. As I stood up and looked, I noticed that there was an entrance deeper into the area. I decided to take that chance and walk in. The ancient-looking corridor was a hell in itself. 5 minutes of walking straight. It got darker, and colder, and the small water droplets that were audible were becoming louder as my boots silently thumped on the stone ground. Suddenly, a deep growl was heard and I snapped into combat mode, my instincts taking over as I unholstered my .45 and knelled against the wall. In the distance, my keen eyes could see something moving slightly. Another, but smaller grunt was heard, and I swear I could hear a moan. I looked down at my hands. They were fine. No shaking no feeling of sweat underneath my leather gloves. Slowly I peeked around the corner to see a figure standing there, holding his rifle securely in his hands. I stood up and aimed at the back of the figures' head.

"Hey! Turn around slowly...And give me your name, rank and serial number..." I shouted.

The male figure turned slowly. I took a good look at its face...It was one of my PFCs. But he looked very odd, as if he was suffering from shock. I couldn't blame him, he had entered the compound before me and the lieutenant did, so he might have had some contact with the enemy...whoever the enemy was. But as he turned, I realized I was completely totally wrong. He raised his rifle and popped off as many rounds as he could squeeze with his finger. I immediately covered behind the wall as the limestone was pelted by high powered rounds. "Private! Cease fire, damn it! Its your sergeant!" But he did no such thing, as he grunted a bit in frustration. I quickly took aim and began to pump him with lead. The first 3 rounds hit his stomach, a mortal wound by most, but he kept coming. I desperately attempted to stop him by shooting the rifle out of his hand. I shot his gripping hand off. He roared in pain and took aim with his trigger hand, attempting to straighten his aim. I didn't let him take another chance at ending the life of yours truely. I aimed at his head and without a second thought, pumped the rest of the clip into his head until the gun clicked empty. His body stopped roaring and thrashing in that manner that it did and he fell over with such a demonic painful growl and his blood began to flood out of the large holes of his body, almost like ketchup, but darker and much lighter. The dark crimson blood slowly flooded over the rubber soles of my boots. It smelled like south of cheese and I held my breath slightly. I then decided that moment to kneel next to the body of my freshly fallen comrade and turn him over. I rested my hand on his sholder to find that it was ice cold. I sucked in my breath in horror. The thing I was fighting just a few moments ago was actually a...zombie.

Zombie? No, thats just bullshit, there's no such thing as a zombie...is there? I mean...its possible...or I'm just starting to go mental trying to find survivors. But a zombie! Nobody has ever mentioned it! What the fuck is this top secret bullshit in a nutshell!

I stopped my self debate and looked ahead of the corpse. There was a solid metal door there with the letters UAC. I've heard of this before. Union Aerospace Corporation. One of the leading manufacturers of military and aviation in the world. They made our armor, weapons and MREs. Were these bastards responsible for the zombification of my grunt? If not then who? I had to find out. I quickly reloaded and started off to the door, ignoring the precious commdity I had earned after killing the PFC. As the door opened, I was greeted with a short terrace with a drop into green liquid. Now this was getting stupid. As I started to walk to the edge, I was hit in the chest by a strong force. I fell backward onto my ass and turned to see what was hitting me. As I did, I realized that I was nothing less than alone. The figure who had made me fall was about 7 foot and carried a chaingun. He wasn't a ranger, due to the fact that he had the USMC anchor and globe on his left arm. But thats all I had time to see, as he growled and started up his chaingun again.

"Oh fuck this..." I said quickly before I hid behind the wall again as the rounds began to bust up around me. I was just in a bad way as he continued to bust holes in the wall. I aimed my handgun blindly around the edge and let my entire clip go. After wasting 2 clips, I heard dead silence. I peeked to see nothing but a chaingun with at least 100 rounds of ammunition left in the belt feeder. I quietly snuck over and looked at the chaingun.

Should I? No...might be a trap...but then...Ah Fuck it! I yelled as I gripped the chaingun and holstered the handgun, now arming the chaingun. I let a sinister grin reach across my face as I was now back up to the evolution charts and ready to go. The only problem is that the way to the other side was across the green slime pool. I put up and started to walk to the edge of the pool. I smelt a hint of horrible excrements and plutonium...Yep. Normal UAC protocol. I've been in trouble more than once in my career. And working maintainance on UAC stations for about a year was enough to stave off my craving for pain...for a bit.

I bit my lip as i rested my foot into the green slime, feeling a slight burning sensation. I continued on, my feet pumping through the sludge. The pain was getting worse as I pressed on. I could feel my skin starting to peel off and the liquid was now absorbed into my soles. Each step was another thought to just put the chaingun under my chin and pull the trigger. But I decided it would be too messy and I finally reached the edge. I climbed up and sat on the ground, groaning a bit. I undid my boots to see that most of the skin on my heel was deterioated into a messy bloody wound. I looked at it and decided that there should be a medical ward somewhere. As I looked around for an elevator, I found to my dismay that there was nothing but a platform with a stud raised above the small platform itself. I put my boots back on and stood up, walking to the edge of the platform. I reached my hand outward, and nothing happened. I then stood on the platform and waited. Nothing. I then decided that the thing was busted and I decided to cross _over_ the platform. Thats when something happened. In a bright green flash I was taken away from the place I knew and into a new area...the first test hell would give me.

And as far as I knew, I was passing.


	4. Well of soulsAztec

My head felt like I was beaten in the face with a bat repeatedly. I'm not sure what I did...But I felt like shit. No reason to complain as long as I'm alive.

My eyes focused on the wall ahead of me. Same cut out as the prievous area. Limestone. I was still on the platform and I immediatly reached for my body, which was still there to say the least. I suppose I accidently found one of those Large-Matter-Transport-Platforms...or just a fucking teleporter, hell I didn't know. I was relieved that I still had my weapons I had confiscated, but I was pissed that the throbbing pain in my heel from the swim in the toxic acid a few moments earlier wasn't going away. I needed some medical attention, and as quickly as I could get my hands on a stimulant and some bandages. I was kind of happy that there was still water here, and that I could take a quick dip in it...

I was bullshitting myself.

I stepped off the platform quickly and placed my heels in the water, seeing the surrounding liquid turn a slight red as the blood in my boots washed away. I hissed in a sharp pain but it felt better as the fresh cool water relaxed me. After a few moments of sitting there on the edge, I decided to stand up on the edge and look at my surroundings. It seemed I was surrounded by a pool of water. I saw a switch on the other side of my position and I decided to swim to it. I took a step off, ready to be sunk under. But it never came. I was literally walking on water, as if I was Jesus himself. I took it to my knowledge that I was hallucinating from the teleport here, but I was wrong as I continued on to the switch. It had the motif of Posidon. I slowly reached my hand for it and when my index finger came to 3 inches from it, it turned on. I jumped back slightly as I felt myself going down. I quickly readied the chaingun and started the small engine, the barrels now starting to rotate slowly, but quickly picking up speed.

As the water started to fall lower, I found myself encountering another trooper. I quickly took aim and fired before he could pop a shot off. The falling of the water stopped, and now I was at level with the platform he was on before I had dispatched of him. The mother was carrying the standard rifle. Nothing new. I dared to venture deeper into the hallway and I found a dead marine. At least he wasn't trying to shoot me. In his left hand was a box of shells. So where was the shotgun? Turns out, after about a minute of searching, I found it, with his severed arm still holding onto it about 6 yards to the left of his head. Whatever tore that off did it nice and nasty, spinters of bone and cords of muscle laying around. Gruesome but oh so nice.

As I picked up the shotgun, I smiled as I checked it out. Nice. My buddies' old shotgun was in good condition, and now it was mine. If only he was carrying a SPAZ, I'd be much more happier, but this would do. As soon as that thought passed my head, a _swoosh_ behind me grabbed my attention. I pivoted and brought my shotgun into play, taking aim as a hoarde of undead filed out one by one, most of them with shotguns and rifles. My left hand pumping like crazy, my right index finger squeezing like crazy, I made a large cone of destruction my message to them. They didn't take it well. After a few moments of silence and the whiff of dead bodies reaked the air, I reloaded my shotgun and continued on down the hallway. I rested my back on the wall and slowly moved onward to a corner, where another hallway leaded me. I took it in stride as I walked along the hallway.

As I saw a stairway leading upward, a loud hissing noise scared the crap out of me. As I turned, I was taken aback to what I saw. This mother was brown, tall and had spike on every part of his body that would allow it. I put my shotgun up and attempted to fire, but it was jammed. I couldn't fire! So far, so shitty. The creep let an eerie smile pass his lips, showing his yellow teeth. He then raised a clawed hand and slowly, a small circle of fire began to rise from his fingertips, moving into his palm, making a larger ball of fire. He then raised it above his head, all the while, I was clearing the jam in my shotgun. By the time he was ready to do whatever the hell it was he was trying to do, I popped off 3 shells in his face, taking him out as his crimson blood ran all over the floor.

I stood back up and realized he did get his shot off. My arm was bleeing, the pain now setting in. I grunted a bit as I turned back to the stairs. I slowly climbed up them and stopped at the ledge. A large cavern was dividing myself from the other side. A switch was there, and I attempted to aim my shotgun at it, but I was thrust down from behind by a rather large circular figure. As my eyes focused on it, I scooted back. The mother was red and had one large eye. His arms were small, like a T-rex's. He opened his mouth, and a charged shot of something came flinging at me. I was hit in the chest. I yelled loudly in pain as I reached one hand, the one holding the shotgun, into its mouth, squeezing the trigger. A large mass of blue liquid came spurting into my face. I tasted it, and I almost puked. Just like blue berries, except these tasted like shit.

I finally had a chance to open fire at the switch in frustration and i hit it, two prongs rising up from the ground. If this was a sick joke, I was laughing. I took one step and stood on the invisible bridge. I was a bit nervous walking on it, due to the fact that I hate heights. Always have and always will. As I reached the other side, the platform closed just as my right foot hit the dirt. It would have been a long way down had I fallen...In fact, if I was this hopeless, I would have done it a long time ago.

As I walked over to the door to my left, my body throbbing in pain, I flipped the switch, the door opening upwards to reveal another staircase. I walked up the stairs slowly, stopping at the ledge and peeking over, seeing 3 rangers with chainguns, shotguns and the whatnot. I reached my shotgun over the ledge and emptied out the remaining shells before I reloaded, my hand fumbling with the shells. As I finished, I aimed again, seeing that I had gotten them with the last 4 shots I had left. As I reached the top, I noticed that there was a radio there! I rushed over and put the headset to my ears, hoping for a response...

_Echo 33, this is Ranger 2-0, do you read? Echo 33, this is Ranger 2-0...Is anyone there?_

_---KSHHAASHSHHHAHHAHHSHHHH-----SID! SID IS THAT YOU! Oh thank god...Its Naomi. Listen, Give me your position and I'll get over to you as soon as possible, or vice versa._

_-------Naomi, I though you were killed back there. Good...I'm at...I don't know where I'm at...the exit sign here says "Testing Cages"..._

_Good! Just get to the elevator on the other side. I'll be waiting...Are you hurt?_

_-----Yeah...Just a few cuts and bruises...you got a medkit?_

_--------Yes, Now get over here! -KSSHSHHH-_

I suppose stupidity got the best of me, because I stood up and walked over to the door, and opened it, walking to the elevator. I pressed the button to go down, and it did, I just remembered I forgot the chaingun on the other floor...Fuck!

I groaned in frustration as the elevator ricketed downward. I suppose I passed the test hell gave me, but now I had a new priority, and as I went down the elevator, I realized it.

I had to get Naomi out of there.


	5. Caged:The Professor and The real story

As the Elevator stopped, I came upon another door facing me. So, another door. Whats so special about that? Think about what happens when an ant gets caught in a magnifying glass...No, imagine you're the ant. Yeah.

As I stepped through the door, I suddenly felt like I was burning hot. I was still inside the compound but the teleporter room was intensely hot. As I repeated the procedure on the first teleporter, I stepped up and crossed, appearing in a poorly lit room with a ring of teleporters surrounding me. Great, another game of choose your fate. Before I took a step off the platform, I looked down. More of the toxic sludge. Thats typical. You gotta look before you leap. I made my choice wisely. Eenie meenie miney mo...The one on the left was what I was going to choose and I hopped off the platform, exposing my feet to the sludge as I took another step into the teleporter.

I knew 2nd grade games were a bunch of bullshit.

As soon as I had recovered, I found myself on the recieving end of an onslaught. 8 Zombie motherfuckers with 2 of those new brown turds. To top it all off, I was in a corner. More like a cage, but who's keeping count? I backed up as far as possible and whipped out my shotgun. I took a half-assed aim and fired blindly. Lucky me, I got 3 of the undead as they groaned their last breath and fell over. I then took aim as the rest of the rotten took their turn as I was busy trying to dodge a fireball from one of those spiked bastards. They merrily took aim and let a few shots out at me. I felt a heavy burning sensation on my leg and chest. That was about all I could take as I was immediately pissed. I stood up and with the adrenaline running through my veins, I ran up to the hoarde of evil and let my shotgun swear for me, along with a few of my own. As the last imp dropped, I sat down for a moment to collect my thoughts. My breathing was heavy and labored as I attempted to put pressure on the wound.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around and hit the ground on my back, aiming my shotgun at the figure. I sighed a breath of relief as Naomi looked at me with worried eyes.

"Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to you?" She asked as she knelt next to me and pulled the knapsack off her sholder and opened it.

"Well...dispite the fact of almost dying trying to get to you, and dispite the other fact of burning my heels off...I would say I got caught up. Thats what happened." I said with a smirk. She immediately smacked me and smiled.

"Shut up, Sid. Let me fix you up so you're at least semi-decent." She then pulled out a hypodermic needle and injected it into my neck. It hurt slightly but I was fine. Next she asked me to take off my armor and unzip the suit off to at least my waist. Did that. As she pulled out the slugs and applied the ointment, she traced a hand across my chest. "How do you feel?"

"Like a hundred bucks." I said as she leaned in and quickly kissed me. "Thats the man I know. Now, pull up your leggings and take off you boots."

"Alright." I said as I undid the laces on the boots and pulled up the leggings on my suit, revealing a bloody mess underneath. It hurt like a bitch now, since the adrenaline wore off. "Be gentle." I said quickly. She laughed and pulled out the scalpel from the pack and quickly cut my leg open a bit more, as I groaned.

"I said gentle..." I muttered trying to keep in a painful scream. She then put on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled out a few slugs. "Jeez Sid. When you're right, you're right...You did almost die...Those slugs were just a few inches from your artery. Like 1 inch, to be nice...Had they cut you, I don't think I would have had the chance to save you..."

I suddenly felt woozy, as if I had a few too many whiskeys at the bar. I nodded slightly back and forth before I closed my eyes and passed out.

Suddenly, I was in a room that looked like someone's brain. Not too pleasing. In my hands was a large sized rifle. I placed it to my hip and began to run down an endless hallway, picking up strange feedback in my head.

"You...do not belong here...Now you will suffer..."

If I didn't know anything better, I would have stopped right there, tossed my helmet down and yelled I QUIT to the entire universe, but something kept me going. I didn't know what it was, but I had something going for me...some force dragging me to it...whatever it was. I continued running. As I turned the first corner, I met a huge mass of Imps, amoung other disgusting evils roaming the area. Some were skinny and short, others were tall and fat. I didn't want to educate myself in biology, but I did want to indulge myself in the shooting range, and with the distance I had between me and the group in front of me, I decided it was the correct time. I readied the strange rifle and squeezed the oversized trigger. A series of large blue pulses shot out of the rifle, the pulses riveting amoung and around the group, blasting into the group, tearing up the zombie line and the imps, and hitting the large masses behind them. One of them with 2 rocket launchers attached to its arms took aim and fired, one of the large rockets about to hit my face...

My eyes shot open and I sat up, gasping. A hand gripped my sholder, and squeezed lightly on my naked upper torso.

"Sid? You alright?" Naomi's voice said quietly behind me.

"Where...where am I?" I said with a labored breath.

"You're in a safe house, sir." A deep voice said to the right of me. I turned my head to see who was speaking. My eyes came upon an average sized man, with a slightly overweight build, hair that reached down to his lab coats' collar. I could tell immediately what this guy did for a living.

"You work for UAC?" I asked as soon as he finished his sentence. The man nodded and cleared his throat.

"I'm Professor Kevin Howell. I was working on a project at the time of the disturbance." He said as he fixed his coat by dusting off something from his sholder. I got pissed and I got out of the cot I was laying on and I picked up the professor by the collar, shoving him against the wall. "Who's responsible for this? Huh? Tell me!" I said, threatening to smash his head against the wall. He coughed and mumbled something and I let him go. Naomi just stood by and watched, hoping that I wouldn't kill the poor guy before I got it out of him.

"I...I'm responsible...You see..." He trailed off for a moment to collect his thoughts, and began.

"After Hell's catastrophic invasion of Earth, about 75 years ago...I hope you at least learned that back in high school, the global governments decided to take measures against any possible future invasion, knowing that the powers of Hell still remained strong and could strike at any possible time... The UAC corporation was refounded under completely new management; the old trustees and stockholders were all dead anyway, and we had aimed at developing weapons aimed at stopping the invasion cold...We came up with a plan.

The group of scientists, along with me starting some 19 years ago, started working on Quantum Accelerator devices that are intended to close invasion Gates and stop possible invasions. The experiments are carried out in a secret research complex, with a stationed detachment of marines. The work seemed to be going well but...," I cut him off right there as I once again gripped his coat.

"You mean there were already soldiers stationed here! Why!" The professor simply cleared his throat and continued,

"The creatures from Outside had their dire attention drawn toward our new research. A Gate was opened in the heart of the complex and unnatural horrors poured out...some scary...some just horrific. Countless lives were taken. The Quantum Accelerator performed superbly, thanks to our quick timing. The Gate was quickly closed and the invasion was stopped. Research then continued more boldly.

On the next day, during a second test, a ring of 7 Gates had opened, and an even greater invasion began... For almost an entire hour, the Accelerator managed to close 6 of the 7 Gates... but the deomic army had already become too strong. The complex was completely overrun. Everyone is slain, or zombified...I was lucky to escape here. The last Gate of Hell is still open, But the Accelerator wasn't managed to close it, no matter how much power I have put into it... I thought I was going to die here. But when you all came along, I decided to make contact. I managed to grab the attention of your friend here, Sid. She then tried to contact you, and did so very successfully, I might add. For now, we're safe, so you have nothing to worry about. There's food and working hygenic facilites, along with beds. The cot is for surgury...We had to stitch you up due to the size of the wound...on a lighter note, I have managed to find some experimental weapons for you two to use, and I've found a working radio, so, I'm going to go lie down and take a short rest. You go ahead and take your time."

And with that, the professor walked to a small bed and layed down, tossing the olive drab sheet over his head and slowly falling asleep. Naomi gently walked up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Sid...I was afraid. Honestly...I've never experianced something like this..." With that, I gently turned and kissed her gently, and she responded by holding me closer and finally draging me to the bathroom stall, placing me in and turning on the hot water. I then took the rest of my uniform off and sluked in the hot water. She sat beside me as I then sat down on the floor of the stall.

"To be honest, dear, I was afraid too." I said quietly as she ran the shampoo through my hair, washing it out as the remnants of blood wated out to the floor. I then closed my eyes and I stood as she told me to do so. She then had given me a sponge and soap. "I think you can do this by yourself, sergeant." I nodded and she closed the blinders on the shower as I attempted to wash myself, which I did quite well, dispite the fact that I had a major pain in my arm.

As I stepped out, I found Naomi laying on a larger sized bed than the one the professor was sleeping in. I quietly layed beside her and she jumped slightly. "Relax Naomi." I whispered in her ear.

"Good...I was just resting my eyes." She said as she pulled my arm around her.

"No...you're tired...Just relax. I'll be here when you wake up."

She shook her head slightly as she mumbled, "mm...Alright...I love you Sid." And with that, I only smiled and whispered in her ear, "I know...I love you too."


	6. Ghost Town PT1: The Time Limit

In my head, I felt no fear, no anger, nothing at all. For the first time since the beginning of this nightmare, I was at a relaxed state of nirvana. If I didn't realize it, I was still here in this makeshift hell, but as long as I could realize I was still human, that I was still a man who someone cared for, I was going to survive, dispite hell's futile attempts to kill me, and rework me into one of those...things. I got up from the bed and walked over to the radio, attempting to re-establish contact, which I did very easily.

"This is the Ebony calling any ranger or marine unit on Geo-sphere. If you are alive, please respond now." I clicked the reciever once and brought the microphone up to my mouth, now speaking into it myself.

"This is Sergeant First Class Sid Armas, I.D. 49084588. Please repeat and continue, over." A few moments passed before the radio beeped and out came the words "SFC Armas, I.D 49084588. This is Major Barret. Its good to hear a familiar voice, Sid."

I suppose I was a moron for laughing, but then again, contact with the battlecruiser was rare, even when there is no hell infestation on a space station. I clicked the mike and spoke into it.

"Roger that, sir. Lieutenant Sheridan is with me, along with a Professor Howell. As far as I know, we're in a bad way...We need extraction, pronto."

--"Thats a negative, Sarge. You've got a mission to complete now. New orders straight from the General's office. We want you to clean up that area for special forces to drop in and quarantine the area. The blueprints suggest closing the Q.As will cause a chain reaction and seal off the portal to hell. You've got permission to use any weapon and any vehicle at your disposal. Your secondary objective is to get the Lieutenant and the Professor off that station. There's an escape pod in the next hallway. Any questions?"

I felt like kicking my own ass. Barely surviving and now moving forward and closing the gate...thats what we call perfect in the Army. Hooah.

"No sir...am I expendable?" I asked quickly. With that, a few moments passed. "You are obsolite to the army at this moment. You are expendable and responsible for your ass, along with your superior and the professor. Now the Navy is on its way, and will fire a nuclear warhead at the area in T-minus 12 hours. Thats your time limit. Now get moving." And with that, the radio transmission ceased. I didn't have time to waste. I walked over to Professor Howell and shook him awake.

"Hmm, wha?" He said, now sitting up. I kneeled next to him and shook him up a bit more. "Doc, tell me where the last Quantum-accel-thingey is."

"Its Quantum Accelerator, Sergeant...the last one is in the hangar area...sector 999...oh my...thats not a good thing..." He said as he cleared his throat and opened a few lockers, pulling out a few crates and opening them on a lab table.

"What are you doin', doc?" I asked as I walked over. As he turned, He tossed me an indigo colored chest armor.

"Put it on. Its experimental, so not all the kinks are fixed." As I zipped up my suit, I shoved the armor over my old one. The sholders came up to my cheeks. I felt like a football player ready to make a winning tackle. He then handed me a new helmet and a few self-medipacks to keep me going. I was wondering why he was giving me all these pieces of equipment, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Follow me, Sid." He said as he walked into a seperate room. I followed and as if out of nowhere, a large silver pipe came flying at me. I catched it and looked at it. The pipe was actually an anti-personell rocket launcher, with a small chain of rockets from the hopper, 5 total. I slung it behind me and looked at him.

"Why are you giving me all this gear?" I asked finally. The professor simply looked at me and shook his head. "I heard your conversation, Sid. I'm only doing this because I'm getting out of here, along with your friend...If You're going to die, I want you to die well-equipped and well armored. The Accelerator is on level 30, just take the elevator down...here, take this too." He then tossed me a XR-45 Plasma Pulse Rifle. As I slung the weapon, I looked at Naomi sleeping. For a moment, I thought of her as my wife...how would that life go, I had no Idea at that moment. I walked over to her and kneeled to her bedside, resting my gloved hand to her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Something wrong?" I nodded and gently rested my visored head on her exposed forehead. She then held my hands and squeezed tightly.

"Naomi, You and the professor are leaving the base. I'm staying here and going to eliminate the Accelerator myself...Oh damn, that reminds me...Professor, How do I get rid of the accelerator?" And with that, The professor handed me a computer map, and a small wad of paper, showing in detail how to dismantle the accelerator. I for one was more than grateful for this quirky man. If I survived, I would add him to the invite list on my new years' parties, although theres just me and a few friends, but thats a different story. I then picked up my shotgun that was against the wall and found a belt of shotgun ammunition that wasn't there before. The professor said he snuck it there when Naomi and I were in the bathroom. I thanked him once again.

"So...according to the map is the colony...Right?" I asked as Professor Howell nodded and pulled out 2 SMGs, tossing one to Naomi, to which she catched and quickly loaded. "Yes, that's correct..." Naomi nodded and walked up, putting her helmet back on and looking at me, she winked. "Don't get killed, Sid. I intend to marry you." I laughed a bit and smiled. "Right...I'll make sure to keep my penis well protected. To that she nodded and looked to the professor, who then led us to the escape pods. As I looked out the window, All I could see was black, and the Ebony's green indicator lights in the distance. Naomi and the professor stepped into the pod and I closed the door. It hissed with air as Naomi walked to the door's window and blew a kiss.

"I love you Sid!" She yelled. I heard it and let myself smile again. "I know! I love you too!" As soon as I finished my sentance, the pod was off, heading to safety. I watched as it disappeared into a single entity with space.

I was alone now. Just me and _them._ I hated that. Always jumped by multiple groups of slobbering, stinky individuals...but for some reason, this wasn't the same. I wasn't just fighting for freedom. I wasn't fighting for myself. I was fighting for mankind...That's a funny thought. If I die, then the universe is fucked. Great, a fucking drama. I hate that even more than the fucking stinky slobbering baddies part...

As I pulled my shotguns safety off, I pumped the slide, loading a fresh round in. It was time for me to "Kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I ran out of bubble gum", along with some of my sanity, but then, It didn't really matter, as long as I did what was right and get rid of that Quantum Accelerator...And in any way possible. If there was a God, now was the time for him to christen me his Diciple...

What the fuck was I rambling about! I had to hurry, there was only 11 hours left until the Navy decides my fate and nukes the shit out of this place.

As I ran out into the corridor, I ran into a few imps, nothing too difficult, a few pops of my shotgun did the trick as I headed to the service elevator. As I pressed down to the Colony Sector, it did so with a chime, ricketing downward.

As it stopped, The doors slowly opened to reveal...A Ghost Town.


	7. Ghost Town PT2: The Keeper of the realm

The bleakness of the area kind of stirred me a bit more awake than I had been for awhile. A seperate colony where scientists, maintainance workers and civilians lived...It just looked so desolate, I had no idea what to do. I walked out of the elevator, my boots silently brushing against the floor. I walked upright along the corridor, now readying my shotgun after reloading the spent shells on the imps that I encountered before the elevator. As I did this, I came upon a large metal door. The UAC logo was on this one too. If I didn't know better and had payed attention, I wouldn't have been hit in my armor with a large burst of gunfire. As I hit the dirt and aimed up, I saw another one of those Zombies, but this one was familiar. It was Jeff. The tall black guy with the chaingun forementioned. Yeah. Him. He looked at me with those large eyes of his, and from his crusted, rotten mouth a single laugh emerged, and a dry, sinister one at that.

"What are you laughing at, you big, nasty motherfucker?" I yelled as I aimed my shotgun at him, not hesitating to bust off his head with the powerful 12 gauge shotgun shells flying out at him. He seemed almost unhurt by my attempts, so I was on his terms. Fucking great. I reached around to pull my newly aquired rocket launcher into play, and as I did so, he opened fire again, this time not stopping to laugh. His expression almost like a robot as he began to pelt the ground around me. I suddenly felt the pain of hot lead seeping into my forearm. I yelled in pain and got the laucher ready with my free hand. The tube wobbled slightly as I started to squeeze the pin-hole trigger, and when it clicked, I heard the hissing of explosive material ready to fire out at a velocity of 50,000 Feet Per Second. as the rocket blasted out of the launcher, I saw Jeff's image for a split second. The next was nothing but a red sea. I felt like I was on fire, and to closer inspection of my leg, I was. I quickly patted it out and looked at my friends remains. Nothing more than ground beef. Gibs were not my type of meal, so I passed that offer, but the chaingun seemed promising. I picked it up and smiled. "Welcome back, baby. Daddy missed you." I then looked at the remaining ammunition. 300+ rounds would do. As I then looked at Jeffs' remains once again, I noticed that there was an object along beside it, and as I picked it up, I realized what It was. A red keycard cut in the shape of a skull. Funny. and just a few moments ago, I was still in a somewhat "Normal" Facilty...as I walked up to the door behind me, I placed my hand to the scanner and it opened. My eyes did not want to comprehend what happened next. The entire area was covered in a flesh-like substance, and it was pulsating. My God, what the hell is going on here?

As I continued inward, I saw a dampened room ahead of me, where another teleporter lay. I continued inward, watching my footing as each step of my boot squished under the life like substance. As I stepped up the platform, I crossed over as a flash of green light tossed me to a stone motif area. I stepped off the platform and looked back to see that the teleporter broke on transmission. The platform was shattered as soon as I had gotten off. No turning back now as I pulled out the shotgun that was dangling from my hip and took the safety off as I walked across the small bridge seperating the main area to my position. As I took the first step, 2 familiar roars of chainguns began to fire. I quickly ducked behind the teleporter room, collecting myself for a brief moment before I got out of cover, and into their line of sight, standing up like fucking John Rambo, and slammed out shells at the two bastards that attempted to kill me. As they groaned in pain, I could see arms and other body parts fly out and around the area.

As I finally stood back up and moved onward into the main area. As I stood in the center of the area, on my right and left were two pillars intimidating me to cross them. I walked up to one and saw that a little green button was tempting me. I had pressed buttons before...Nothing ever happened from pressing a button...

I pressed the button. It sounded like every legion of hell screamed in my face. 2 minotaur-looking beasts began to charge at me as I started to back up all the way back to the teleporter room. Back to square 1. I fumbled around for the rocket launcher and as I did, one of those mothers walked right in front of me and raised its arm as a phosphorous like substance began to form in his hand. That was my cue to end it right then and there. I placed the tube in the minotaur's business area, and pulled the pin. The explosion forced me back to the wall, where I cracked open my helmet. It shattered and fell to the ground, exposing my face. The remains of one of those damn things was laying in front of me. They were acting like fucking royalty.

Maybe they were, and I didn't know it. Maybe they were princes.

Hell Princes.

I let the fresh rocket load into my rocket launcher and waited as the second one rushed over to his fallen comrade. Dumbass mistake. I shoved it in his mouth and pulled the pin. He popped very nicely as his blood sprayed upon me. I wiped off some from my eyes. "Next time, when you open your fucking mouth, make sure that you don't have a rocket going down your windpipe, dumbshit." I said as I now went back to where I was, now walking up the steps that lay behind the pillars and came upon a sea of pure madness. Zombies, Imps, 3 or 4 more of those new Hell Princes, and a few new ones to boot. This soup just won't do. It needs more spice. I pulled out the new pulse rifle that hadn't been fired since probably experimentation. I read the directions as the legions of hell came down upon me. As an Imp leaped out at me, I transferred the weight of the rifle to my right hand as I blew its fucking head off with my left hand, tossing the shotgun up and catching it, shoving it down against the ground to cock it as I continued to scan the instructions located on the top of the gun. I repeated the process of protecting my ass and reading. I lost my place in the small text as I was hit in my face with a sharp object. I turned and popped the head off a pig-like looking beast, if it had a head, that is. My face was bleeding like hell, bloody nose and I could see some red in my left eye. By the time I had finished reading the instructions, I had made a wall of skin, bone and blood around me. It was dead quiet. I didn't know it took that long for me to read something. I guess thats why my teacher thought I was dyslexic...

As I pushed my way out of the tons of rotting flesh, I choked a bit on both my blood and the stench. The grounds were covered in blood as I had cleared the entire area, and in general, single handed too. Thats a first.

As I walked across the small field, I came upon a pool of clear water. I kneeled next to it and washed my face, at least attempting to clean it. It stung so bad, I couldn't manage to get it all washed out. I stood back up, now pulling out my combat knife and bringing it to my eye. It was stained a slight red. Not a good sign. I was lucky I could still see from it. As if a sign of faith and God had decided to show up right then and there, I saw a black case with a red cross. Highly Addictive Amphetamines and Stimulants, place them in an injection tube of 5, and inject them all at once. What do you get? Berserker Fury. Once you inject it, you're in a mad rage. No stopping you until you either pass out or die. I wasn't intending to put it in me right then and there, but I was taking it, just in case. Sure it might not look like much, but when you take it, your body acts as a coccoon for your wounds, covering them and healing them. As I continued up another flight of stairs and out on the other side, which was another field, I came across a metal platform lined with rockets. My rocket launcher could suffice from that, and I didn't hesitate as I moved onward onto the platform. As soon as I put pressure on it, a large platform rose up, and out came one of the worst horrors I could think up at that moment. I saw a large brain on mechanical walking legs, with a Huge AA Chaingun in the front. I rushed my ass around the platform, scooping up as many rockets as I could. The spider didn't hesitate as it started his chaingun and began to fire at me. I wasn't a very fast runner. Point in fact, I was a slow soldier, compared to every other grunt. I yelled in a surge of pain as bullets tore through my vest and into my back. I didn't stop though as I hid behind a pillar and now linking the new rockets together and then on the launcher. I counted 32. I showed myself again in front of the spider and began to open fire with the rocket launcher, a continuous spread of rockets speeding toward it. As they hit, I could see they did some damage. Dents in its head told me something was at least working. Finally, after 32 rockets, and 3 pumps of a shotgun later, I managed to deliever a killing blow.

One of my shot hit its leg, which in turn busted off a screw and it fell on itself, blowing up on the unspent ammo inside itself. I caught my breath as my blood streamed down my head and face. I felt like shit, let alone I almost died for the second time. My eye was hurting bad and I knew I couldn't last long like this. I sat down against a wall and pulled out the medical kit. I started to inject myself with the painkillers, and I felt remarkably better. Well, remarkably as in less shitty. I didn't want to take any chances as I got up and walked aimlessly for about 3 minutes, finally coming upon a red door. The key I picked up earlier was red, so why not? Turns out I got it right and the door opened, revealing a golden teleporter.

By God, I was getting closer.


	8. Caughtyard: Lost

If I had known better, I would have thought ahead of things to come. Already empty on rockets, and running low on shotgun shells, I swapped my weapons for the chaingun that was dangling from my back. Now ready for anything, I slowly stepped on the teleporter. In a flash of pure evil, I was outnumbered. I saw that I was in a somewhat courtyard, but on the tops of the walls I could see numerous zombies of all types, male, female, children, even...

But that wasn't the horrible part yet. What was inside the courtyard was worse. I could see from my position 3 large figures, masses of skin and fat, from what it looked like to me. It reminded me of a book I'd checked out in the library prior to my departure. The offspring of a conception of an Incubus and a Succubus...

Mancubus. They looked almost like the ones I was seeing now. Big, and large with rolls of fat. Except this big bastard had two big cylindrical tubes.

In reality, they were not stage props, but actually mini MRLS attached to their arms, and where the firing pins were stored, was a long tube, rolling past the beheamoth's sholder and into a large backpack filled with JP5. Well, from what It looked like, It was small as hell, but I used common sense and determined that the 24 foot motherfucker was quite the fatass, thus the backpack was massively huge.

This whole time, I was kneeling in the corner of the courtyard, spying with the scope of my standard rifle...

Courtyard, thats funny. More like Caughtyard. I was surrouned, and If I made a bad move, I would turn into a feast of ground beef. I stood up and donned the plasma rifle, following the instructions once again. I took the safety off and slung it to the rightful hip holster. I then took aim at the first fat motherfucker I could see and I squeezed the solid, oversized trigger.

I made the biggest mess I had ever seen. As the heated plasma burned into the fat, muscle and eventually, all the way through, I saw that His head melted and the folds of fat flattened at his feet as the bones slowly disintigrated down to halfway to his spine. "Son of a bitch." I managed to say as at the exact moment, I heard the loud, alerting cries of every damned soul the human race would allow.

"Fuck that." I stood up and rushed over to the next corner, seeing that i had miscalculated how many mancubi there were. 5, if you dont include the one I had smoked just recently. They groweld a bit and one aimed his cylinder arms at me, and I could hear the familiar sound of JP5 being burned off, followed by a whooshing sound. I immediately hit the ground as 6 rockets fired repeatedly over me. I didn't like that feel. I quickly aimed the rifle and let it fire continuously, letting the plasma blasts slam into the fat masses, tearing them apart after a few moments of continous fire. After a few moments, I saw that there were none left. Turns out being pissed has its advantages. I stood up, ignorant to the fire from the zombies above me. I got pelted twice in the side, and as I felt my crimson, warm blood flow out of my body, I spun around and laned on my back, unholstering my handgun, taking accurate shots at the decaying hoarde. My finger squeezed rapidly, becoming slightly sore as I pounded out .45 rounds over and over again. I got 2 of the mothers as I saw the wall section to both the left and right of me slide down to reveal 2 lifts. I stood up and limped over slightly. As I reached the first lift, I pressed down, and was met with a re-incarnate of death. Its tall, boney form rushed out at me with a hollow screech, and it packed a massive left hook. Seriously. I hit the ground hard. And I thought I was the only grunt who packed that mean a punch this side of Phobos.

As I rolled ass over scalp, I took a few crack shots at its face. I saw its skull start to chip off pretty bad, especially when its jaw flew off. It roared and kneeled over. I thought he was dead, but instead, I saw 2 pipes of lead, and a white flash of flame, then 2 spherical rockets flying at me. I ducked and fired more rounds into him. Eventually, I severed his spinal cord, and he shattered like a glass vase. I ran quickly to the lift, and jumped on it as It slid up. As it reached the top, I was met with a troop of zombified rangers. 1st platoon, no doubt. They all carried shotguns, a clear sign that these guys were the best. And they showed it too as they took aim and fired in unison. I crouched and closed my eyes, expecting the end...

Instead, I heard a demonic roar. I opened my eyes to see a shimmer or more like a blur hit the ground, and 2 more seemed to spin around and attack the zombie troop. I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw zombie heads getting bitten off and arms torn off their bodies. I backed up and tripped on something. It was a body of another dead soldier, this time he was carrying something special. I picked it up quickly, only taking a glimpse at it along with the bandolier of shells that came with it. I quickly ran down the hall and to the left, running into a blocked wall with an orange skull painted on it. I looked around and there it was, right there in the middle of the courtyard, and I missed it completely. I cursed myself and ran around to pick it up, while the demons were distracted by the bloody melee. I jumped down and caught it on the pillar it stood on, and quickly climbed back up, via the small tower. I then sprinted back to the wall and inserted the card, it slid up quickly and showed a red button. I pushed it before I quickly saw a green flash from the corner of my eye and I turned, seeing a green flash. I quickly brought out my shotgun and loaded 3 shells in it, knowing what was going to happen. I was dead wrong to what I was expecting. A Hell Prince stepped out proudly, although this one was a bit paler, and it looked like it had attained some age. He let out his demonic roar, followed by a slight wheeze. This was going to be easier than I thought. I slammed-fired the weapon until it clicked dry, toppling over the poor bastard. I then kneeled and reloaded, my thumb pushing in the red shell with as much force as possible. I then shoved the slide up and loaded it fully. Now I was ready for more. The pain in my side was burning me more to madness as I quickly rushed over and saw that there was still a shimmer of whatever the hell it was that killed the platoon of zombies. I aimed my shotgun at it and popped it. He fell over accordingly, and the shimmer disappeared. It was another one of those pig-looking demons. I shook my head and let out a loud laugh as I quickly ran back down to the middle, but I was stuck. I was at the ledge of stairs I had seen in the beginning. I jumped off and walked to another lift, letting it fall to ground level. Turns out, I filpped a secret switch and raised a bridge to a moat I hadn't seen. I crossed it and walked on real grass. First thing that was normal in this godforsaken research lab. I ran to the edge and turned, seeing another building. Funny. The door had a smiling goats' head on it, with the pentagram surrounding him. Now this was fucked up. I opened the door and saw a drop downward. I figured "What the hell" and dropped down, meeting up with 2 chaingunners. Marine. I quickly put them to their eternal rest with 2 blasts of the shotgun to their heads. In the distance, I saw a teleporter and I ran to it. I then stepped through and crossed over.

According to the map...wait...where the fuck is the map! Aw SHIT!


	9. Onslaught: Reflective Meaning

As I re-oriented my self, I heard a grunt behind me. I turned and hit the ground on my back to see another Chaingunner. Great. I quickly pulled out my go-to weapon, the handgun. I squeezed off about a clip before I took him down. God, he was strong. He groaned out and quickly died. Now I had some time to see what I had picked up earlier. I looked to my pack, and noticed that I had 2 shotguns. The one I had picked up from the dead soldier was a double-barreled combat shotgun. Perfect for up close work, but it would be useless in the long game.

I checked my watch, and I found out I'd spent about 2 hours trying to get to the damned Q.A, and I was already fucked up from the head down. I scooted over to a wall and leaned against it, resting a bit. I needed a short break, if not 10 minutes to think for a bit. My stomach growled at me. I was starving, along with the need of a good stimulant to keep me going. It seems pretty gruesome, but when you're in a combat zone, you stop thinking rationally. Hunger was setting in...Hunger. It seemed just a few moments ago, I had a woman who out-ranked me screaming for more as she was riding on top of me. Now, I was fighting to stop a potential 2nd invasion of Earth...By myself. If looks could kill, I could have already gotten back home. 10 hours until the deadline.

I stood up and looked at my remaining shotgun shells. 20 shells wouldn't be enough, but they would have to do. As I shifted my gaze to a set of pillars, I noticed a blue key. I still had my red key, and the blue one would be fine to have along with it. I limped slightly over to the pillars and began to jog to the key. As I picked it up, I heard a symphony of doors opening with a hydrolic whoosh, followed by the standard growls and grunts of a squad of undead. As I turned, I quickly rushed back through the pillars, seeing 2 boxes of shotgun shells on the ledge in front of me. I had almost reached the first one, when one of those floating monsters floated out of the wall. I grabbed the shells, but left them on the floor as I brought out my shotgun. Enough said as I squeezed both triggers. An explostion of lead was my present to the monster, and he didn't like it much. As soon as I had fired, I saw the other zombies trying to hit me with their weapons, but instead hit the red ball of evil, in which he fired out his lightning balls in a return fire. This gave me enough time to crack open the shotgun barrel, pulling out the 2 spent shells and, in a fluid motion, grabbing 2 shells from my belt and placing them in in unison, snapping the barrel back into place as I took aim at the hoarde of zombies, attempting to hit me. I squeezed one trigger, seeing them fall from the spread of the shot into them, and then I turned my attention to the big, red motherfucker. I smiled a bit as I squeezed the trigger, seeing its eye pop out of its socket and fall mercifully to the ground, looking like a mashed paste of blueberries and kiwi...Wow, so I was hungry.

I scooped up the box of shotgun shells, and found a second box on the opposite side of the ledge, now collecting 40 shells, along with the now 16 remaining shells I had. 56 would do for now. As I walked over back to the ledges to see if there was anything the zombies dropped of interest, I found that one of the secret compartments contained a small box. I popped it open to find 5 beautiful rockets just waiting to be blown against something evil. I attached them to the rocket belt, and turning around, I found that there was a knapsack a few steps in front of me. I kneeled next to it, opening it, seeing who it belonged to. _E. Hodges_. Well, whoever E. Hodges was, I was grateful. He must've been a medic, because not only were there medical packs, but there was a pair of MREs. A heavensend. Along with it I found a large cell pack, with 5 more rockets, 20 extra shotgun shells, and 30 9mm rounds. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to proceed to eat them, shoving them into the pack as I heard a growl. I sholdered the pack and readied my shotgun, creeping over to a door. I opened it to find my dear japanese friend's head, in the hands of a zombie. I popped my shotgun right in its merry little head, spattering his blood against the wall, where to my right, a switch lay. I pressed it, but it didn't budge. It buzzed and the red button blinked back and forth between red and blue. Blue key is needed, I suppose. I pulled it out and looked for an entry port. There was none to be found. I pressed the button again in frustration, and amazingly it worked. I heard a mechanical whirr as I looked out to see that a series of small pillars slid down. This wasn't standard UAC Protocol. Not the slightest bit normal. I continued forward to see a small patio, where another key lay, this one was orange;and to the right, was a larger building, where I could make out 2 chaingunners. This was turning out peachy.

I quickly darted for the key, and as soon as I pulled it off its pedestal, I heard the monotonous roar of a mancubus. Thank God it was only one. I rolled behind the pillar and readied my newly loaded rocket launcher as I re-appeared, letting off 3 rockets. It hit the poor bastard hard, blowing off his head and let his fat collapse inside of him. This was turning out to be fun. The pool of blood gushed out nice and even. I nodded promptly, and kneeled behind the pillar again, this time equipping my Chaingun. I slowly moved to the orange door and entered the key in, the door opening quietly. My type of sound. I slowly walked along the wall, where a small ditch was and I stopped at the corner, leaning out to see 2 chaingunners standing there. They didn't even attack. They just stood there. Just two dead bodies who were standing...until I walked out. Then they snapped to life, growling and firing their chainguns. I would have been ground beef if one of the zombies didn't commit F.F. That just ticked off the other, the rotting son of a bitch turned around and happily discharged some ordinance at his buddy, who did the same to his good chap. Eventually, they killed each other, which left me a happy camper. I walked back to the red door I had seen when I had walked in and I opened it with the red key...

At least I attempted to open it. The fucker was jammed. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 rockets. I was stuck shitless. Or at least I thought I was. I walked out the orange door, and as I did, I was ambushed by 3 of those boney bitches. They all bent over in unison and fired their rockets. I took aim and popped off my chaingun as fast as it could go, the rounds tearing up the hellspawn. I saw one just fly backward and die as soon as it hit the ground. I continued to keep the trigger pulled as long as they were standing. My Chaingun had other ideas as I saw one of the rounds get caught in the chamber, the chaingun whirring loudly and suddenly, the chain that moved the barrels broke. _HOLY SHIT _I thought as I backed up and pulled out my single barrel, pumping the last bone brother to shit. More or less, I was chaingunless, again. I reloaded my shotgun and saw the green grass that was growing in this hellish bio-sphere lead to a wooden semi-circle. I entered halfway through, when I saw the trap. The walls opened up, revealing a massive barrage of Imps, and to top it off, a Hell Prince showed up in the middle of it. All the imps warmed up their fire balls and had at me. All I could see was red...

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_Captain Carter, Please report to the med bay, Captain Carter to the medical bay._

"How are we doing, Ms. Sheridan?" The doctor asked as he scribbled something on his clipboard, looking at me.

Good God. I had enough of that horror fest. Ever since that nightmare began, I was more or less contempt with myself that I was making it out, regardless if my platoon made it or not. But, I still couldn't get over the fact that Sid was still down there.

_Sid...My Sid..._

"I'm fine, Captain. I'm just a bit shook up...how is Professor Howell?" I asked as soon as he finished speaking. My attention was in this cold medical lab, but my mind was somewhere else. Still on the Bio-Sphere...Why did they have to open the portal again? Why did they meddle with our God? Why didn't they just experiment with fish instead of fucking portals!

"I see...Well, Professor Howell is just deprived of some nutrients in his system. But He'll recover. Would you like to speak to him?"

-"Yes, Doctor." I said as I slowly stood up in my civilian clothes and walked down the corridor to the room where Kevin was. Kevin was his first name, I remember that. As I stepped in, I saw the Professor writing some things on a notepad, his hand movements fluid. I took a seat next to him. Strange, for some reason, Kevin reminded me of my dad. Always working...

"Kevin, Are you alright?" I asked calmly as he looked up from the notepad and smiled. "I'm doing fine...But I have a small thing to discuss with you...Its about Sid's predicament...From what I can speculate, He keeps moving lower, correct? If he has already reached the Arch-Vile labs, He will already be in the first level of hell..."

-"Hell? Why Hell?" I asked sharply. Forget asking what the fuck an Arch-Vile was...The professor cleared his throat and nodded. "Well, the invaders have decided to make the space station their staging area for a 2nd invasion of Earth. Sid is the only one now who can stop it short and end it in a few moments if he can survive each legion from the first level down. The strange thing is, that Hell is overly populated with lost souls and demons. What I'm trying to get at here is..."

"Well?" I barked at him, grabbing his arms. He gasped a bit and shook his head. "Let go. I have a wife and son, you know...What I was trying to say was, If Sid dies, we're all dead. Every member of the human populace, the armed forces, and UAC itself..."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "If he dies, its game over..." I stood up and thanked Kevin and then headed off to my quarters...

I sat in my desk chair, looking at the small antique clock that sat on the desk, along with the picture of my father in his uniform. It was faded and grey, just like I had left it when we first set out from China. He looked so proud to be in that uniform. Just like Sid did...

_Sid..._

Why did I always think about him? Was he that important to me, and I never knew it? No...thats not it. I had a crush on him since we met in Alaska...3 years. 3 years of sexual tension...and it was all taken out in one night...one amazing night. He was amazing...his touch was so delicate, as if he was an angel...his hands were soft to the touch...

My hand gently stroked my stomach. I had been doing that lately...I didn't know why...I had felt odd after our encounter in the caging area...but, it was a good feeling. Euphoric...and warm.

_My God...am I pregnant! Am I carrying Sid's child? Oh God..._

I shook my head from the negative and sighed, remembering that night...

"Just relax, Sid...I've wanted to do this for awhile now..."

-"...Alright..." He whispered as I moved my hands to his chest, taking his shirt off as slowly as possible. I stopped halfway from pulling the shirt over his head and I landed a deep kiss to him. He responed and he placed his hand on my waist. It felt so warm...I just had to keep going. I was in love with this man, and I knew he felt the same way. Slowly, our bodies merged together as one, our sweat dripping along each other, our lips locked in a passionate kiss, and I felt him enter me, because I had moved him inside myself. But he didn't pull back or stop, he went with the flow...But Jesus, he was delicate...his touch was out of this world. During this entire moment, his hands would never stop tracing my body, and he smiled as he softly told me I had a nice body. I blushed at this comment as slowly, our words would become lost in a sea of pleasure and love...

I smiled as I remembered this. I continued to stroke my stomach. I now finally came to the conclusion, that indeed, I was pregnant. I decided to take this oppertunity in my leave to visit the doctor again. But I wanted to wait a bit before I did so, just to rest...Before I knew it, I was asleep in my chair...

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"Motherfucker."

I was almost killed. My life had flashed before my eyes, and I had passed out. Then how did I make it? How was I able to live? Slowly, my gaze moved to a piece of scrap paper, where in a few short words explained to me:

"A ranger sleeping on the job. Pathetic. The red door is open and cleared. I'll be waitin' for you at the Q.A Room.

Your Guardian Angel."

Great...a mockery of my talent. I stood up and looked around. The place was filled with gore and fresh burning bodies of the dead hellspawn. It was pleasing to the eye. I turned around and headed into the red room, seeing that it led to another teleporter, where another note was posted. I picked it up and scanned it:

"If you're alive, take this teleporter to the Arch-Vile Labs. And whatever you do, DO NOT PRESS THE BUTTON.

G.A."

Was this person, whoever it was trying to save my ass? If so, I was grateful. I stepped through the teleporter and waited for recall.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled as I saw a crowd of yellow creatures, with beady eyes, standing there.

So...these are the Arch-Viles...


	10. Hunted: Speed

Whatever the hell I was doing, I was doing out of simple desperation. As I got closer to the Arch-viles, I noticed that they couldn't see me. Lucky me. There was a button that said "Down". I, being the button pusher did so. The small area that showed the arch-viles slowly rose up, and the lights turned on, revealing a comfortable atmosphere, it even had a computer chair, God was I lucky. First thing was first. I had to fix myself up. I pulled out a medical kit from my knapsack and popped it open, revealing an array of medical trinkets and creams and medications. I started with the cuts on my back, taking off my armor and my olive drab T-shirt, picking up a small mirror to assess my wounds. Turns out, I had more than I was bargained for. A few large cuts along my back were revealed to me after 2 hours of just trying to get to this fucking point. Thats really nice, I hope I got a fucking medal for it. If not, 2 months of R and R.

I slowly applied disinfectant to my wounds, and I let out a pained groan. It felt good, but all the sweat and dirt that went into the wound wasn't helping it. I felt my skin burn, as if a lighter was held to my back. If anything, it was getting worse, but I put up and shut up when I put the styptic on. God, did I need some food in my system. But self assurance kept me lively, as I finished my patching up. I then pulled out the stimulant and injected it. I felt a whole lot better. I quickly pulled out the MRE packet and opened it, pulling out the chicken pasta that was inside. I placed it in the heating pack and let it heat as I pulled out the crackers and peanut butter. I opened it and quickly placed some on the cracker, stuffing it in my mouth. It was like an orgasm in my mouth as I chewed away, the stickyness and sweetness shooting through my tounge and my mouth as I chewed. It was ALMOST better than sex at that point, but I think Naomi would have a different say on it. I think she'd think my sex manner is quite healthy, and lively, too.

The pasta was finished, and I quickly retrieved it, pulling out the tobasco sauce and the fork, and digging in, just enjoying the tasty tomato paste. I finished it up and drank my canteen halfway. I'd need the rest in case something happened. I'd rather put off the details of how it tasted for now...And take it out on Naomi when I got back.

I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes, falling fast asleep. I didn't mean to, but damn it, I was tired after eating...I should've known better...When I came to, I'd pissed 5 hours away. Fuck me.

As I stood up, I pressed the controlls again, seeing my good friends the Arch-Viles, who were behaving quite nicely. I quietly assessed the situation. A crap-ton of ammo, with some nice weapons, but I knew I'd be needing more than just a few extra rounds or plasma charges...I needed a bomb. A big one. Just blow it all down the shitter. But then I'm thinking irrationally. I need to calm the fuck down and remember that I'm the only hope for a fucking chance for the human race. Just me. But if I fucked up, the Navy would get off their asses for once and do something. They'd Nuke the hell out of this facility...I wonder what a 40 mega-ton nuke looked like in space...

I stood up and put my shirt, along with my armor back on, and reloaded my shotgun, stuffing about 2 shells in. Wow. I'd spent 2 shells from A to B...I think. Its just lost in translation, I'd figure it out later, exactly how many I'd spent...because It'd be coming out of the U.N's budget...heh, I can't wait to see the shitty look on their faces when they realize that they threw 800 Billion dollars down the pisser, just to realize that they single-handedly opened another portal into hell and began the 2nd invasion of Earth. I finally put my knapsack on and looked over to another button, where a small note lay. I picked it up and read it.

"DONT FUCKING TOUCH THIS BUTTON."

G.A.

"Wow. I'm feeling better already." I staved my impulse to touch it and looked around. No other way out...Better touch the button. I extended my button pushing finger, and pressed the button. I knew he had a point when he said DONT FUCKING TOUCH THIS BUTTON. The Arch-Viles let out an alerted growl, and suddenly, they disappered. I was afraid for a moment. I slowly stepped out and saw that I was led into a maze. Right out of Fucking Alice In Fucker's Land...Oh wait...LT. Hagden let me borrow that tape...I still haven't given it back to him. But he won't mind anymore...He's dead. I walked along the corridors, seeing UAC everywhere. It was driving me fucking crazy. As I turned the umpteenth corner, I came upon one of my skinny friends. I quickly shot him. I shouldn't have done that. He brought his arms up and I felt a slight burning sensation. That _slight_ burning became greater as I shot off a few more shells at the fucker. He then suddenly looked like he was out of one of those Japanese Animes, because all I saw was blood. I looked down and saw his mangled corpse. Beautiful. 10/10. I reloaded and turned the corner finally, seeing a long corridor. I started to jog as I came upon 3 rows of pillars. Red, Orange, Blue. Happy go lucky for me. I pulled out the key to each one and opened the make-shift walls, coming upon a teleporter. This one looked different. It had a Pentagram engraved into it. I'd give anything to know a Wiccan right about now. Tell me what these things ment. I walked up to the edge and I took a deep breath. "Ok Sid...Just step though. Why are you tense? Are you just freaked out by the Arch-Vile? Yes...Yes I am...But I gotta buck up." I slowly took one step forward...and Never looked back.

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-"You're pregnant."

"What?"

"You're pregnant, Naomi. Do you know who's the father?" The medical technician asked quietly. I slowly nodded my head. "Sid Armas. He's my Platoon Sergant." I knew I'd get in a lot of trouble if Major Barrett got wind of this. "And I request that I be discharged on these terms..." I said quietly.

"Whoa, whoa...You don't have to quit the Army because of this. If anything, you're just going to be re-assigned, unless you marry him...and I doubt you said your vows down there in that hell hole...did you?" I had smiled and shook my head, the idea..._But him asking me to get hitched with him would be a bit rushed...It would be best for the child_. "No...we didn't. Although when he gets back...If he gets back, I want to know if he wants to or not..." I had said. Nothing too difficult to pull off. Just ask him if he wants to marry me. The only thing I have to worry about now is if Sid is coming back...He could've come with us...It would have been better. Why did he go, if he really had no purpose there...

"By the way, Lieutenant, have you seen Professor Howell? He's been missing for quite some time, and he's not in his quarters..."

"I don't know, honestly...Why of all things would he just disappear?" I pondered this for a moment and shrugged it off before I worried too much about a middle-aged Scientist.

As I headed back to my quarters, I layed onto by bed, closing my eyes and trying to sleep, but I failed miserably. If anything, I just set a record on how lot it takes someone to sleep. But I wouldn't bitch.

As I finally felt tired, I slowly closed my eyes and hoped for the best...

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The green flash of the teleporter brought me to the realization that this existance has its ups and downs. I landed on the ground...covered in blood. Suddenly, I felt instense burning and pain. I looked down to see this wasn't toxic waste, no. It was highly corrosive acid. I yelled in pain and immediately headed to the center, where a portal lay, covered in a makeshift alter of scrifice. I muttered curses and roars of pain as I crossed the pool. All the makeshift patching up of my body was basicaly futile to what I was doing now. I would need a real medic after this crap. I suddenly felt lightheaded and about to black out as I fell face first into the teleport, my vision fading to black. The question lingered in my mind as this happened. _What would happen to those...yellow things? The arch-viles? Would they stay there?_

My eyes opened on the ground to see my blood spewing out of my nose, mouth and eyes, along with my ears upon closer inspection. I really did get fucked up. It was bad enough that I had to travel through that pool of acid...

_But it looked like blood. Is it the blood of the demons? Did they have different properties than humans?_

I would suppose. Unless its another act of witchcraft...I could really use a wiccan priest or something or other...I felt horrible as I fought my way up to my feet. I quietly searched myself. Nothing except my pistol. Thats fucking great. All that work for shit-next-to-nothing. I wasn't going anywhere in this condition. I checked my surroundings. For the first time, I could see the sky. Blood Red and dark grey clouds. This biosphere was really bugging the fuck out of me. As I continued to walk toward the stairs that led to a door, I came across a note. Finally, some recogntion.

"I told you. Anyway, If you want to get to the Quantum Accelerator, Its in the next area. Just be sure to stock up on weapons...and you look like you need some serious medical attention."

G.A.

Am I dreaming? Am I just imagining this? Whoever this person is was really ticking me off...

As I looked around, I realized that I still had my berserker pack. Honestly I was afraid when I pulled out the large injection system, but it would be worth it in the long run. I put the needle to my neck and pressed the trigger, the injection shooting into my jugular and into my brain. Suddenly, I felt all my pain drift away into a pool of rage and dispair. I felt tormented and I wanted to take out my anger on someone...I rushed over to the door and saw that a hell prince waited for me. I rushed up and without hesitation, let my fists punch his lights out. One fist in the face, several in the stomach. I punched so hard, I swear I popped a hole in him. He fell over in complete agony as I rushed across the pools of acidic blood, not feeling any pain. I hadn't noticed the Chaingunner in the pillar in front of me, so I ran past him, fuck the bastard. I turned right and I saw a small legion of demons. I wasn't in the mood to play hide and seek, so I charged straight ahead and leaped into the swarm of imps and zombies. I then began to throw my fists at everything that moved. I could see jaws and teeth and blood flying everywhere, disgustingly flying into my face. I wanted to be covered in crimson, I didn't care about anything but that. Just blood, blood, blood, and fucking gore. I wanted it all over me, like some sick sexual fetish. I hadn't felt this good about killing in a long time, and I wanted to keep it that way. My heart was racing and my vision blurred at the edges. I could literally see red. I wanted to taste demon blood against my tounge, and swallow it fully as if it was a 3 course meal. It was delightful as I let out a horrid laugh, charging past the maimed and torn demon spawn to a small hoarde of demons up some stairs. "Fuck you" I said as i grabbed one by its massive jaws and with all my human and drugged strength, tore off its jaw, then thrusting my hand in and ripping out its heart. His breatheren got just as pissed as I did, and I ran at them to their dismay. I tore them the fuck up. No mercy for those who hurt my men. I didn't wait to breathe and I took away the last one's life. As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I saw a mancubus and a bony. I quickly ran up to the fatty and jumped on his back, shoving my fist into his large backpack and tearing out the JP5 system. He roared in pain, as he tried to reach behind him. I smiled and I began to relentlessly pelt the back of his neck, until I amazingly tore a hole. I shoved my fist into it and, taking hold of the spinal cord, I began to twist and turn with an inhuman rage and strength, the entire time the bony was trying to reach me with his rockets, hitting the fatty in the chest, where the rockets seemed to bounce off. I shoved my other hand in there, the fat mother's blood spattering over my face and chest, and I broke it like a bamboo stick. The fat lard immediately fell over, dead. I looked at the Revenant with menacing eyes, and I quickly rushed him, shoving my fist into its transparent skin, grabbing his spine and pulling it out. Literally. He fell and folded like paper, the rockets firing wildly into the air and the back, where some other demons had began to charge, getting hit by the rockets and quickly eliminating the threat.

I continued to rush through the area, not sure of what I was supposed to do. Suddenly, I saw a portal at a ledge just across from me. I felt the anger drifting away slowly, and I felt fatigued. Eventually I reached the platform, seeing below me the wave of destruction I had left behind. I was covered in blood, and amazingly, I was healed. I was tired and I wanted to sleep, but I knew I couldn't. I had to keep going. I had to give one-hundred-percent and then some. It was in my blood, I volunteered to be a ranger, and by God, I'd do it, even if I was the last one standing.

As I crossed through, a human voice brought me to reality.

"You're finally here. That was forever. You really do suck as a ranger." Immediately I shot up to see a muscular figure, brown hair, blue eyes, his armor was a different version. It had the USMC globe and anchor on his right chestplate. I didn't bother to read his tag as he helped me up.

"Those things fucked you up pretty good...We're really close to the Quantum Accelerator, If you want to live, you follow me, ranger."

"Now wait a damn minute. I dont take orders from someone like you." I shot back.

"Not even from a lieutenant?"

Damn...score: Marines-1 Army-0.

"Sorry Sir. I'll watch your ass."

As we walked forward through the area, I saw more of that pulsing flesh. "This is not good..." I said.

"Trust me...It gets worse."


	11. Never More

"So...as in it gets worse...Does that mean we're getting closer?" I whispered after we had arived from the teleporter, absorbing the shock as we both sat and waited for a moment. The silence was bugging me, but it was also calming. I finally had the nerve to look down at his tag. Turns out, he didn't have one. It was torn off. Probably by one of them demons got to him...

"Yeah...from my map, were just a few more floors down...Keep your guard up."

As soon as he said that, I thought my eyes had decieved me. I saw a skull fly past my head, as if to tear off my nose from where it was. I fell back slightly, and to my right was a hoarde of them. Just me, the marine and the pistol by my side. I quickly began to unload on the first one that charged me. It didn't take long. As the rounds began to pelt inside of its head, I saw it flop in, and explode suddenly. The leatherneck beside me had his single barrel shotgun and was unleashing it on two others. I took my other skull and downed it. 4 total; not a bad exchange.

"We should find a way out of here, before more of those things find us. And I think they'll like the idea of chomping us into human bubble gum." He muttered as he ran to one side, leaning against a skull pattern, which depressed into the wall, and I watched as the top half of the wall opened up. I slowly walked over to the other side and pressed it. Sure enough, the remaining section disappeared, leaving a new room for us to explore. As per tradition, I let the lieutenant go behind me as I checked the area. One Imp. 3 rounds. Dead. Simple process...at least to my extent. I then covered the right and left. 2 more. I kept my eyes on the baddies and let them have it with my .45. One managed to fling a fireball at the last moment, pelting me in the chest. I fell back and hit my head on the stone floor. I sat back up and cursed as I fought up to my feet. Fatigue was getting worse. As we cleared the room, I saw a yellow skull key. I started to reach for it, but I stopped short as I saw an even better prize. Shotgun. I scooped it up and checked if it was loaded. 8 shells would do for now. I looked over to my superior, as he was busy looking around, then at me, then at the key. He walked up and smiled some. "You're not touching that thing with a 10 foot pole, are you?"

"Nah...I was just waitin' for you." I replied as I picked up the key. On cue, the four pillars that had blocked our view,(I only mention this, now that I remember. I had forgotten after a small "incident" With my beer) slowly moved down to reveal 4 mancubi, growling and smelling of raw sewage and ass. I covered my nose and pulled the lieutenant over to the wall, where we could make a split-second sit-rep before we rushed and took matters into our own hands. I climbed on top of one, and shot the other within eye-shot with the new shotgun I had. The lieutenant, meanwhile still on the ground, strafed around them, confusing them as I continued to try my best in elminating them. After emptying my shotgun, I managed to down one. He stopped cold and let his arms relax gently as the blood spewed out of him. The one I was riding actually got smart and slammed his fat into the wall, knocking me onto the floor, the officer tripping over my tired body. All I heard was "Shit" repeated 39 times in one minute. At least to my best knowledge. The lards turned to us and raised their rocket launchers...

We were fucked. Royally. Until I laughed my ass off at the sight of 3 fatties fighting each other. It was like a 3-way-fat-death-match, complete with front row seats. As they slaughtered each other, me and the lieutenant thought up a plan. There was one door that had the orange emblem. I would take that route as the lieutenant would take the other. We nodded and rushed of. I shoved the key in and ran in, seeing a few blurs rushing toward me. Just my pistol wouldn't do. I rushed in between them and quickly moved into the larger area beyond the corridor. I saw a mass of imps and red balls of evil appeared, along with a few zombies. Lucky me. I started to shoot the ground troops, which I did with slight difficulty, But I finally managed to pick up my standard rifle. I began to open fire. Lucky me. I began to shoot the ones furthest away, the results showing greatly. I loved my rifle, and I would never leave home without it. I took my time lining up my shots and pounding out the .50 caliber rounds into the demon spawn. Chunks of flesh and veins flew every which way. I backed up, pleasent of my work. Unfortunately, I forgot about one small problemo. I was 12 feet above the ground. I slipped and fell, (Starting to turn into a habit, ain't it?) hitting the ground on my back, as I got back up, my back burned with a strike of a fire-ball. I fell back down and I turned, aiming at the Imp's head. I then blew off the spiked fuckers' head. He continued for me, his reflexes working still. I slowly nudged him down with my rifle, tapping him in the chest with the barrel. I smiled smugly as I rounded the corner, aiming my rifle around to see a Hell Prince. He spotted me and roared. I quickly backed off and aimed, starting to open fire at its iron chest. He groaned as holes pierced into his body. Blood spewed out and slowly he hit his ass, holding his chest as I walked right up to him, and shoving my fist into his face, punched him from a sitting position to a laying one. I then aimed my rifle into his mouth and squeezed the trigger twice. The gore spattered on my face, and I realized I was lost...slightly. There was a ladder...or a really narrow set of stairs...either one...

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God damn it.

3rd day as a lieutenant, and already back to my roots. If it wasn't worse, It was just me and a grunt with the sense of a recruit. Damn my last name...

Taggart, thats right. T-a-double g-a-r-t. Taggart. Eric Micheals Taggart. United States Marine Corps.

If I wasn't damned lucky to do this...Which I wasn't, but who cares? I honestly don't...

...I've been here too long. I'm ranting like a mad-man. I have to keep control of myself and my senses ready...I really hope that grunt found the way out...I don't care if we both get out of here, or if it's just me. As long as I can stop this evil...this Doom from ever reaching Earth again...

Not again...Never again...

Why was I thinking like this? Am I really that wasted? I'm starting to talk like my father...

The bastard left me...me and mom...did I even have a family?

No. You didn't Eric. You were him. A part of him. A clone.

Clone...a meat bag. Its irrelevent. I have my goals. Live or die, I'll get it done...

After getting out of that mancubi trap, I took the other way, the doors without keys. I did it pretty easily, my finger squeezing rapidly on the shotgun, blowing the rotten and the spikeys' heads off without a doubt in my head.

_You had a life, Eric...You were Flynn...You were THE man..._

Block out the thoughts. Keep killing. Keep living. Keep shooting.

I did just that. A squeeze of the finger, a pump of the arm, a spent shell. Repeat steps one and two until enemies are beaten and shot to a pulpy mass, however chef sees fit.

_They're gonna get you...they're gonna kill you...they're gonna get you..._

Who were _they_ ?

I was wandering. I was lost. I was found by a prince. My arms were sore as I continued to pump him full of shells, but the mother just kept coming. Almost clawed as his hand brushed my sholder.

_So close...Eric...You're gonna die...Just surrender_...

Hell no. It's not the Marine Corps way.

I shoved my fist into his mouth, and with all my might, I pulled out its tounge, the blood running down my arm. If anything, I wasn't going to die here. Not now. Just take deep breaths...

_-"Flynn...do you think they'll get us in the end?"_

_-"Why do you ask that, Arlene? We've already gotten through them time and time again..."_

_-"Because I know...that deep down, We can't keep it up..."_

_-"Yes we can, don't ever doubt it. Ok Arlene?"_

_-"Ok..."_

"Arrrgh! I'm not Flynn! I'm not him! Damn it!" I cried out over the corpse of the hell prince. My eyes stained with tears of the memory recall...the doctors told me about it...they did all they could...

_-"But what about Jill...what is she doing? Is she even alive?"_

_-"As far as I know...It's a mystery."_

...But it wasn't enough.

My hand opened the door and I stepped in.

A grunt behind me.

A grunt in front of me.

A grunt to my left.

A grunt to my right.

A quick burst of gunfire. I hit the floor, my vision dimming...

_"Arlene...I'm sorry..."_

A slow...deep...breat...

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As if it didn't get worse...This room reeks of rotten. My hand slowly pulled out my pistol, readying it and kneeling low. I cold hear them breathe and grunt. It wasn't pleasent. I heard minigun fire just a few moments ago. And Zombies don't fire unless there's something alive...

_The lieutenant, you dink!_

I rose to my feet and rushed over, stopping short and peeking around the corner. Sure enough, 4 chaingunners...well 2 now. But on the floor...Was the lieutenant. Dead. His hand still gripping the shotgun he beloved from when I first saw him. Apparently, he wasn't cut out for the corps. I had a plan, but it was risky. I opened fire on one zombie, letting him get immediatly turn, and I popped the other one behind him. He did the same, and to my luck, they both fired. I hid behind the corner, only to be caught off guard by a claw, raking across my chest, tearing the gentle fabric. I groaned out loud, shoving the pistol in its mouth and pulling the trigger, letting the imp fall dead. In the mean time, my zombie buddies were killed by a case of friendly fire. I walked over and re-aquired my chaingun. My love. My only...next to Naomi. Slowly my eyes turned to see the lieutenants' body, mauled with armor-piercing bullets. I commandeered his shotgun and bandolier.

"Thank you, Sir."

To my left was a door, with the neon lights reading _EXIT_ on them. I walked over and opened it, seeing a elevator shaft. I called the elevator, and as it arrived and opened, I was met with a skin elevator. Skin and oozing plasma.

"I'm loving this..." I moaned as I stepped inside, almost forgetting the map. I quickly reached over and picked up the computer map the officer had. I then headed back in and closed the door, heading down slowly...

Let God save his soul...


	12. The beginning of the end

The elevator slowly climbed down, down, down...lower and lower into the compound. It was ticking me the hell off. I wasn't sure where I was going, the map that was built into the elevator was not working, due to the fact that the growth had absorbed it into its mass, leaving me with a wall of muscle. The buttons also were covered, in a fatty, stinky mass. Thank God for my leather gloves. Those were a life saver.

As the elevator stopped, I stepped off and saw a complete room filled in skin, and rotting corpses. My senses were on high alert as I crept ever closer to the prized teleporter at the other side. Suddenly, as if a breeze hit me on a cool spring day, I heard whispers. They were quiet, like children. Evil minded children.

-"You don't belong here...get out, get out..." A young little girl whispered.

"You don't want to play right...leave us alone..." Said another, a boy this time. The echoes continued to circle around me. I didn't know if it was a trap or not, but I was getting slightly bugged out. I started to pick up the pace, moving from a calm walk, to an aware jog, my eyes starting to dart, my breathing picking up slowly, my heart beating a bit faster now. The whispers got louder, and more mature. They started to swear obsenities at me, cursing me and the human race. They called me a useless waste of time, and amoung other things. The children's voices came back in, and I could suddenly hear a small flute, playing a child-like melody. I imagined children playing in a meadow, chasing a bunny...

That changed dramatically, as the wall to my left slid up rather quickly to reveal a hoarde of imps and demons charging out. I quickly backed up and fell back, landing on the organic floor, bringing out my chaingun. I slammed the hammer forward and pulled the trigger.

"Allow me to introduce myself !" I had yelled as the .50 caliber rounds pounded out against the demonic hoarde. Bullet holes and bloodied carcasses began to fill the room, the stench of rotten skin and sulfer being inhaled into my body. It smelled like the apocolypse, or something close to it. I heard the familiar empty click rattle on my chaingun, and I muttered curses as I brought out my rabbit gun, loading two shells in the barrels and loading it, wasting a wounded imp on the ground, clawing slowly away in fear and agony. Now that my defensive measures were finished, I could see the spot where they appeared from. I walked into the hollow cavity, and looked around. Just what I needed, a new chaingun belt. 200 rounds I had estimated and had stuffed into my knapsack. Next to that, a small medical pack, and a hand. I could see the remnants of a white coat...

_Holy Jesus..._

Quickly, I rushed over to one of the corpses, and pulling out my combat knife, cut open each and every one of their bellies, tearing open their stomachs and shoving my hand into them, searching for anything that could help me find out who this man was. My hand hit something by the 3rd demon. I shifted around a bit. I pulled it out. A nameplate charred slightly beyond repair. I could still make out the name. _Howell._

What the fuck? Wasn't he back with Naomi on the Ebony? I'd find out sooner or later. Until then, I was keeping the name plate. I sheathed my blade and picked up my shotgun, heading to the teleporter. A flash of light, and a few moments of recall, and I was in a small green courtyard, metal beams covering it in a cross. Suddenly, I heard the familiar roars of Hell Princes. I quickly darted toward the entrance to my left and turned, seeing a corner. I ducked behind that and took the delicate time to load all my weapons. All 3 of them. I loaded my shotgun and my chaingun, shoved a new clip into the handgun. As the chaingun, the rounds slowly fed into the chambers, the belt rotating into the chambers, the bullets clicking into an unsafe mode, all which could be blasted away in less than 4 minutes. I peeked around the corner and saw my two advasaries, waiting for me. I quickly aimed my chaingun and let it rip, the rounds pouding into the gargantuan, the oddly colored blood spewing out of him. After a few moments, I saw something just out of something evil. The rounds tore through the waistline, cutting him in half, the innards and outards hanging out and laying on the floor, the blood immediately catching flames, and he combusted, charring into a type of self sacrifice. As his brother pounded to the direction of his fallen comrade, I took a crack shot at his skull, downing him quickly. He fell over, and he slowly began to be set ablaze. I smiled and yelled my battle cry, as I headed to the other side of the entrance, where it opened up into a larger open space, the sky showing through. Once again, blood red with grey clouds. As my eyes scanned the area, I saw two more of those skeleton-like wierdos. They spotted me, and bent over, firing their rocket-launchers at me. I quickly took cover and let the rockets hit, the concussion knocking me down to my knees. I fought my way back up and readied my chaingun.

As I leaned over, I took aim and popping out a few rounds, the bullets tearing into the abomonation's transparent skin. I saw some odd liquid ooze out, and it roared in pain as it fired a few more rounds at me. I kept my cover and fired when I got a chance, downing them in about 2 minutes. As I checked the coast, I peeked my head out. Two grunts and the sound of a weapon being cocked. I pulled my head back in, and just as I did that, I heard two chainguns being popped off at the same time. "Lucky me." I sighed and pulled out my shotgun, aiming blindly around the corner and popping off a few shells, until I thought the coast was clear. Then I proceeded to do the same to the other side. After a few more moments, I finished my task, and walked down the steps to a patch of concrete surrounded by demon's blood. I knew I would have to cross it in order to reach the next room to my right. The door in front of me needed a gold keycard. A gold keycard I didn't posess at that exact moment in the space time continum. I turned to the space I could enter and I sprinted, crossing the pool and ending up on the other side, climbing up the steps to the ledge above it. I shimmyed across to find a wide lip, seeing two more re-animated skeletons. I hit the dirt as a rocket blew over my head, hitting the furthermost wall. I readied my shotgun and pounded out about most of my stash, pumping shells into the holding chamber over and over again. Both of them fell and I stood back up, seeing that the ledge below awaited me certain doom. I backed up a few steps, then sprinted out and jumped over the ledge, landing on the other side. I took a deep breath to attempt to relax, but all I got was a screech from a red ball of doom. Or, if I wanted to be philosophical about it, a Cacodemon. Caco meaning "spirit" and Demon well...yeah. You get the point. I shoved the shotgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger, pulling it back between his sharp teeth to refresh the barrel and pound out the shell. He suddenly became heavy and hit the ground hard, jolstering loose my shotgun. He chomped off the nose of the shotgun, leaving me with a short barrel. I cursed in frustration, but that quickly stopped as a shotgun blast interrupted my curse fluster. I quickly rolled to my right, and pulled out my handgun with my left hand, aiming and pouding out the rounds as best as I could. As he fell, I quickly scooted over to retrieve his shotgun.

As I reloaded and readyed my shotgun, I headed down the hallway to the ledge where the prize lay. One gold key at the end of the ledge. I slowly walked over and picked it up, and as soon as I did, The ledge slowly fell into the pit of blood around me. I cursed and saw the walls open up to an ambush. "Not again..." I quickly jumped off the ledge into the pit of blood. I waded into it as it began to burn. I saw a stairway and I climbed up it. As I reched the top, I saw a hoarde of zombies, princes and the whatnot of evil. I took a deep breath and decided the best course of action was just avoiding it as best as possible. Well...I can't avoid it, I'd better just go right through the thick of it. I needed a distraction though. I thought for a brief moment before I had it. I aimed my shotgun over and let out a few rounds, pissing off whatever evil was there. I smiled as it attacked the other one on sight. Old memories don't fade fast. I remembered the in-fighting when I was back in the caught-yard. I was lucky it worked. I rushed through as the wave of in-fighting began. I reached the other side, where a switch lay. I pressed it, and the ledge rose up from the blood. I jumped across the gap it created, and I sprinted back to the hallway, to meet an old friend.

Its yellow skin flashed brightly in the dimly lit area, and my heart skipped a beat. "...A-arch-viles..." I stuttered slightly. From just one encounter, I was afraid. It was my only weakness. I didn't know the proper way to combat him. I readyed my chaingun and let it rip, the remaining bullets slamming into its leathery skin. It growled and let its smile show, the flames spewing out of its mouth.

"You won't get far, human..." It whispered into the depths of my mind, literally raping my cortex. I moaned and hit the ground on one knee, the pain setting in. I heard a high pitched buzzing sound in my ears, getting louder, more intense. I slammed my head against the wall, and it went away, the smile on the arch-vile disappearing. I quickly fired my chaingun from the hip, the yellow demon falling backwards, the blood that spewed out, turning into flame-like liquid. It flooded the floor, igniting it. I waded through the chaos and ended up back where I started. I took a deep breath and spotted the door. With the key in my hands, I opened the door, seeing barrels of toxic waste. I then spotted the squad of zombies that were guarding the entrance to the upper left of me. They growled and teleported, and I fired, just forward, hitting a barrel. The explosion and concussion afterwards knocking me on my ass. I stood back up and saw the giblets I created and I walked onto the portal that the zombies used, arriving at the top level. I quickly rushed around the corner, spotting 3 more skeletons. I backed up, and I tripped on my old friend that I looked over. Mr. Rocket launcher.

I scooped it up and aimed, just as one of them saw me with those hollow eyes. I fired a rocket, hitting its flailing body. It burned and charred slowly as I jumped over and met his two compadres. "Hello boys." I muttered as I fired the last 4 rockets at them, downing them. I put the launcher in the back of my pack and I turned the next corner to see 4 imps. They were waiting in ambush, and they were successful in scaring the bejesus out of me. I pulled out my shotgun and pounded out as many rounds as my hands would allow, backing up toward the wall as fire balls of all sizes flew toward me. I hit my stomach and let my last two rounds hit the hoarde. Amazingly, all 24 pellets hit their targets, and they fell over at the same time. I stood up and walked toward the portal and crossed over.

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"Damn it..." MCPO Dawson said under his breath, looking at the medical officer. "You let Howell get away. You know that if he's dead, the demons will have all the information they'll need to get back to their home. You should be disgraceful of yourself..."

"Christ..." I whispered, listening through the door. Suddenly, a hand touched my sholder. I turned and saw Major Barret. I gasped and moved backward, my back hitting the wall.

"S-sir..." I muttered as he smiled and shook his head.

"Don't worry...Just follow me into my office and I'll let you know everything there is to know about this mission..."


	13. Secrets and Lies

As the recall wore off, I heard the hiss of a pissed off imp. Not too happy about that effect. I rolled to my left, and as soon as I did, a whoosh of a teleportation recall appeared to my left, along with a green flash. I cursed briefly. No ammo and empty weapons, I was shit out of luck. I pulled out my combat knife and got ready. 3 more imps and a few of those pig things. They were really trying to stop me. An imp fell on me, trying to make my life a living hell. I shoved my knife into its chest, ripping left, the bone cracking, giving me a pleasured feeling. The warm crimson fell over me, and I shoved my hand into the gap, pulling on something, that after I realized was its heart. It was still beating as I forced it out of him. I stood back up and felt teeth ripping into my back. I groaned and turned my head, shoving my blade into the demon's eye. It roared and backed off momentarily. All of a sudden, a few gunshots took my attention. The snipers in the distance were trying to take me out, but instead were hitting their demon and imp comrades, pissing them off. My time to fly. I ran in pain as fast as I could, tripping over a gap, but I caght myself on the other side, knocking down an imp. I fought my way back up and ran up a countless number of stairs that I did not see before, running into a squad of zombies. I immediately tackled a former sergeant, stabbed his face and throat, and pulled the shotgun from his hands. I popped his squaddies to beat beef, and I quickly pulled out the .50 rounds to compensate for my chaingun.

After taking a brief moment to load 30 rounds into the chaingun, now I realized why they wanted a single fire option with this, but decided not to. I needed a weapon; the chaingun was on its last legs, I could tell. Each time I fired it, it coughed out the shell casing instead of letting it drop freely. The chain was getting oily, and needed service. The trigger was getting beaten, same for the hammer and feeding chain. I needed something new...But it would have to wait. I readyed my weapon and headed onward, running into a little less than what I had expected. Until the teleport recall came. I then knew I was in for a world of hurt. More Princes and Demons and Mancubi than anyone could count. After a few moments of silence, they let out their battle cries, and I hauled ass through the hoarde, getting as deep as I could. Maybe they would start another infighting match, which would be good for me at that point in time. As I reached the other end, I saw the exit. I didn't want to spend another moment in this area. I ran through and into the elevator pushing down repetedly as the doors closed and did so.

My sholder was hurting like a son of a bitch, and it was bleeding pretty bad. I needed something to stop the bleeding. I pressed the emergency stop button and sat down. I looked at my watch. 3 hours...just 3 more hours...

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"So...what was their plan from the start, Major?" I asked quietly, sitting in the polished oak chair. Major Barret nodded and pulled out a folder, tossing it on his desk.

"Open it," He stated. "A few years ago, the Federation funded the UAC to create a controlled teleportation device, so that we can bring the war to hell itself. As professor Howell must've told you, they were successful, and they had just finished running their first test, which was successful. Then, about 21 hours ago, we recieved a distress signal, alerting the Federation to this area. Smack-dab in the middle of Mars and Jupiter. The Biosphere. To the left of Biosphere is Mars City. And to the right, Io Marine Outpost. Io, being one of the moons of Jupiter, is a heavily fortified area. No demon could penetrate. Therefore, we're ruling out Io. The Demon's next point of attack is Mars City. Thats what I've amassed...But back to the subject...To make a long story short and full of information, Professor Howell is a Double-Agent."

"What? You're kidding...Kevin is actually..."

"Yes," He concluded, "A demon. A shape-shifter..." He then took a moment to scratch his jaw and then look at his desk for a few brief moments.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Well...When Professor Howell went missing on board, we searched high and low. Turns out, he had managed to enter the Data Recording Center and steal some high-class information, killing a few guards in the process. Luckily, one managed to sneak a tracking device on him just before the poor man died. Apparently, he stopped at level 743...Sid already passed through that point just a few moments ago..." He said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "..."

I looked at him and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to relax. I then looked at him. "Well...we're stymied, correct, Major?"

Major Barret looked at me with those piercing blue eyes, deep in thought as he finally stopped and nodded. "Thats correct, Naomi. We're in a rut...All we can do now is hope that Sid can make it through there in less than 3 hours...The Fleet Admiral is agrivated at our time frame. He wants to proceed with the nuclear bombardment, but I've already told him to stand down..." He then took a deep breath and looked at the gold pocket watch he kept in his BDU shirt pocket. "Damn-It...Sergeant...You better move like you have a purpose..."

I hoped he moved like he did have a purpose...He had a kid to support.

The Major looked at me and took a deep breath, something he did only a few times in a blue moon. This was the 2nd time I'd seen him take deep breaths in succession. "...Sid is a good Ranger. He's been taught by the best. Marksmanship, SERE, Sniper School, NCO Acadamy, Combat Experience, and personal intuition to complete his tasks...If I had a son, he would be it..."

The thought of Sid being the son to a Major Barret. It brought a smile to me. It wore off silently before I looked at Major Barret. "Major...We can't send in the SEALs...Or more Rangers?" I asked him quietly. He shook his head slowly before he scowled slightly. "The High Brass thinks its a waste of time to look for a man who might as well be dead. I don't think so...I know that Father-less Son of a bitch isn't dead yet. He's a Ranger, for God's sake..." He then sighed quietly.

"...All we have to do is wait."


	14. BFG!

_Dear God..._

_...I know I've used your name in vain...a lot. And I do a lot of other sins...envy, pride...sometimes..._

_But thats not the point right now..._

_I wanted to ask for strength...strength that I've never asked for...for about 10 years now..._

_I stopped believing in you when you took my mom and dad away...but I forgave you and moved on._

_I forgave you when you send me to this hell-hole...And I forgive you for giving me this fucking pain-in-the-ass gash across my sholder._

_I'm not asking much, God...Just one fucking burst of strength...Thats it..._

_Also, I'm sorry for cursing..._

_Amen._

...Why was I even bothering?

Did God even exist? I was starting to wonder...

The blood trickled slowly down my arm. I felt slightly woozy. That pig-faced bastard nicked me in one of my arteries, I think...right below the Jugular...

...I felt cold. Slowly I stood up and opened the doors to the next area. If I was Hallucinating, then I could have just bought the farm. I saw a blue sphere hovering in my face. I slowly walked up to it and I reached my finger toward it. As soon as I touched its cold surface, it stuck to my finger and slowly oozed over my body. As it ran over my wound, it felt deathly cold. I shivered and held my breath, then began to shiver slowly.

"I-Its cold...Its cold..." I didn't even know why I was shivering. As it enveloped my body, I started to choke on the blue substance. I suddenly wasn't able to breathe. I struggled a bit as I tried to keep my feet, but I hit the stone ground on my knees, passing out. As I fell to my side, I could hear something calming whisper into my ear...

As my eyes opened up, I felt a hell of a lot better. I looked around. Nothing but a teleporter in front of me. I pulled out my combat knife and ran into it, being transported to a motif of metal, technology and computers. Thank the guy upstairs.

As I searched around, I seemed to have tripped a motion sensor, opening up a side of a wall that had electronic screens and whatnot into a small armory. I slowly walked over and smiled.

"Hooah."

As I stocked up on ammo, I came upon a strange weapon. It was big. I mean really big...like really fucking huge big...I looked at the tag.

"Biological Force Gun...BFG..." I smiled as I tried to make up an acronym for it. As a few moments passed, I picked it up and sholdered it. It hummed to life. I smiled a smile only the Devil would be afraid of...

"Big Fucking Gun...Awww Shit..." This mother of a cannon was almost bigger than me...off my 2 feet. The trigger was pretty huge too. I chuckled a bit and checked the pulse required for one shot.

"40 Megawats? Jesus Christ...Where the fuck am I gonna get some juice like that?" Then it hit me like a train. I pulled out the Cell pack from my knapsack and shoved it into the charging bay. The small meter on top of it rose to a green level. I smiled and I finished stocking up on ammo. I nearly filled my bag to the brim with it as I walked out of the lab into a seperate chamber, where an extra set of body armor and a helmet lay. There was even a small stimulant pack. I switched out my gear and shoved the stim into my pack. Once again, I was ready. As I exited out the door, I walked up to a new elevator. I pressed the open door button, and oh what did I see...a handful of rotten waiting for me. No time wasted as I pulled out my double barrel, fully loaded and ready for action. I squeezed both triggers, causing a clean-up on aisle 4. Bloody and caked walls were the result. It slowly started to smell like rotten meat. I puked out the biggest mess I'd ever seen this side of Phobos. It looked kinda like clam chowder...only stickier. I pressed down, wiping off the excess vomit from my nose and mouth and I pulled out my brand new chaingun, the barrels polished to a nice reflection.

As the elevator slowly stopped, it opened up to reveal a massive flight of stairs, leading up to a teleporter that I needed to reach to continue. I charged out and began to run up the first flight, running into a few zombies. A few bursts took care of that problem, as the holes created caused a nice mess of rotton blood. It was slippery and I almost tripped in it. I continued up, running into a Hell Prince. I quickly backed up and pulled out my assault rifle, popping him in the chest a few times. The blood spurted out and he roared. I quickly noticed a toxic barrel right behind his left leg. I could tell from the radioactive sign on it. I popped it twice, and the explosion after satisfied my craving for destruction. Shards of metal pierced his tough exterior, ripping through as he groaned in pain. I then finished him off with two to the head. As I ran up the next flight, a few imps were trying to catch me off guard. I continued onward, as one jumped up behind me and slashed, hitting my armor. I hit the ground on my back and squeezed my finger as rapidly as possible. It groaned and fell forward. I rolled to my left to avoid it, but I was almost over the edge of the flight of stairs. If I fell, I would be a Ranger Pancake.

The other three imps hissed and began to fling their balls of distasterous fire at me. I rolled back, over the imp, who was disintegrating to flames, my suit catching fire slightly, and I popped one in the face, his lower jaw ripping off as the bullet tore through his neck. The spatter confused the other imp and I took my advantage, standing back up and shoving him over the edge. He screamed as he hit the ground. Only one left. He was tricky. He smiled and charged me with those razor sharp claws, cutting my arm. I smiled and I rammed the butt of my rifle into his neck. He grunted and fell to one knee, standing back up and charging me again. I fell backwards and as he stood over me, I popped his lower extremities to hell, the blood pouring onto my stomach and chest.

As he died painfully, I stood back up and ran up the stairs, being knocked on my stomach by one of those flying skulls. I aimed and fired at it, missing a few times. I finally hit the poor mother, and it exploded on me. As if on cue, the flood lights went out, leaving me in a dim red atmosphere.

I heard a few pig-like grunts, and I shuddered slightly. I then saw it moving toward me, but stopping at the top of the stairs. I smiled and reloaded. I then pulled the hammer back and I popped a few rounds into him, the poor demon growling and tipped forward, rolling down the stairs. I hurdled over him and I continued on. A cold touch to my arm made me turn to see a few zombies shambling up at me. I grimaced and popped as many as I could before I continued on, my legs getting tired fast. Ricocheting bullets off the wall missed my face by an inch as I made forward progress.

As I reached the midpoint, I swapped my weapons for the Big Fucking Gun. I turned it on and it beeped twice, the power meter rising to a green bar. I smiled and aimed at the hoarde of demon scum shambling and charging up the stairs after me. I slowly aimed and squeezed the trigger.

A dark blue flash, followed by a bright green one, the following charge shooting out into a massive green plasma ball. As it hit the wall, I somewhat frowned, since I missed, but the aftermath made me laugh some. The small balls of electricity and nuclear fusion tore through the scum, their blood making a large pool on the bottom of the stairs. I holstered it and ran up, pulling out my shotgun.

I ran into a few Cacodemons, their eyes menacingly staring at me. I shot my scattergun as fast as possible, dodging as many of their electric ordinance as possible, my arm getting singed in the process. I scowled and fired even faster, pumping new shells into the resivoir and readying myself before I let out another hailstorm of 8 shells. One fell and the eye fell out. One red bitch down, a few more to go. I shuffled back down the stairs, and I pulled out my rocket launcher, aiming up at them and letting it rip, the chain of rockets shuffling into the chamber as fast as they possibly could, the rocket fuel illuminating the room briefly until they exploded upon the walls and the demon scum.

"That takes care of my infestation problem..." I then pulled out my assault rifle again and moved up the final flight of stairs, where I came upon a small platoon of mancubi, imps, zombies, demons and revanents. I started to pop as many as possible, the mancubus line firing their high powered rocket launchers.

They whooshed over me, followed by revanent rockets and imp fireballs, with the zombies providing supressing fire and the demons charging at me. I pulled out the BFG again and I fired it, the main ball hitting one of the demons, the explosion relatively equal to a nuclear explosion. In a white flash, it was over.

I stood back up and I walked tiredly to the teleporter.

I took one step and in a flash of white light, I was gone.


	15. Hell

There was an eerie silence as I passed over, staring into the face of hell itself, the flames rising up and the strong odor of rotten meat filled my nostrils. The beating of my heart kept me sane as I looked around this God-Forsaken place. As I closed my eyes, I snapped back to my mission. I checked my watch. 1 hour and 30 minutes. I'd spent enough time fucking around. I quickly ran down the carved path, where there was fire and brimstone on both sides of me and I looked ahead. People impaled on poles, and they were still alive. Barely.

I rushed over to see that every single one of them was from the first group of marines. At least I knew I wasn't alone till then. They only looked at me, not speaking a single word. I slowly walked closer to one of them. As I reached out my hand to touch him, he suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand, yelling out an in-human roar. I backed off and looked to see he alerted a few imps shuffling around.

I groaned and quickly pulled out my handgun, taking my time to line up my shot, and I squeezed the trigger, downing the sucker in one hit. The other two weren't impressed. They flung their fire balls at me and I quickly took initiative, ducking low and opening fire. I saw the slide slam back and I emptied out my clip, reloading with a new clip of .45 ammo, and set the slide forward, seeing as I had one imp left. I took my chances and popped at him blindly. I blasted his fool head off.

As I looked back over to the impaled soldiers, I noticed a hole just past them. I walked up to it and saw that I wasn't even near hell yet. But I had no other place to go but up, and up was not an option. I grabbed all my gear in one hand and jumped down into the pit. "Airborne!" I yelled out as I did so, free falling for what seemed like forever. As I saw the ground coming, I noticed a large, massive patch of skin and flesh rise up and catch me. As it did, it deflated slowly. As it reached the floor, I stood up and stepped off. As I continued throughout the hot, sticky, flesh ridden room, I noticed a teleporter, covered in flesh and blood. I slowly walked up to it and it transferred me to a Catholic's interpretation of Hell.

As I quickly checked my surroundings, I noticed the zombies around me were silent, staring at me with dead eyes. All of them were carrying shotguns. Thats what freightened me. Any sudden moves, and I could end up like a nice piece of deer meat. Dead.

Slowly, I holstered my handgun and reached for my chaingun, dangling from my sholder. As I painfully brought it up, I took a deep breath and bolted off the platform, hearing the angry alerted grunts of the zombies, aiming their shotguns and taking shots at me. I turned and opened fire, the clean sound of heavy gunpowder going off. They fell and groaned out loud. I then hurried along the endless maze of brimstone and fire. As I found the stairs, I climbed up them, meeting up with the other sergeants. It wasn't a happy reunion; they preferred to get some distance on me and pop me away. I preferred my option, getting distance and letting a hail of rounds burst through. Repeat steps 1-3. As I walked over and saw the mangled bodies, I slightly smiled and began to run again down an endless maze, jagged ledges and heated surfaces.

The closed corridor opened up to a large resovoir of blood, with a building in the middle, where there were 2 doors, and in between was a smiling goat's head with a pentagram surrounding it. I checked my ammo before moving out. As I waded in the stinging blood, I came upon 2 imps and 2 revenants, ambushing me. I quickly swapped weapons for my rocket launcher and kept the firing pin squeezed as they popped out, the jet fuel igniting just before they hit the ground. The explosion after left behind maimed, charred bodies and bones. I stepped onto the platform and slowly crept up, until I saw the pink skin of a Hell Prince. I cursed and quickly backed up, taking aim before I fired the rockets at him, his angered cry rocking the entire area. Immediately after, I noticed 2 others walking out of the blind spot. I quickly backed up a bit more and watched them have at me. Their amazingly burning blasts amazed me as one shot over my head. I quickly opened fire as their brother joined them. I had an oppertunity. Would I take it?

Hell yes.

I ran out from behind my cover, then with all my momentum, I drop-kicked the bright red one in the chest, his heavy mass falling down. His brothers tried to swing, but I ducked and went behind them, passing them and heading inside the building. As I rounded the corner, I ran up the stairs and saw a similar gap from prievous, but when I stepped forward, I was teleported instead of being dropped for what seemed like an eternity. As I quickly took in my surroundings, I turned to find a squad of chaingunners. I cursed louder, and ran off to my left, where a hallway was. Next time, I'll make a reccomendation to not send so many soldiers next time...I had been keeping count. 1,423. I think thats two battalions. One marine and One Army.

As I reached the end of the hallway, it opened up to a pit of lava, with a staircase of flesh leading down to a platform of wood. I went down and carefully went across, until that is I was rushed by a few Cacodemons. Well, not a few...make it 20. I pulled out my chaingun and started to open fire, seeing as they were acting a bit slow in attacking me. Finally, after I had downed about 2 of them, they began to retalliate, firing their electric balls at me, as I ducked and hit the ground. This was definately a wrong way. I stood back up and double-backed into the hallway. As I looked out again, I saw the teleporter, with a ledge. I took a deep breath and looked to where the squad of zombies were. I sprinted out and jumped onto the ledge, the soldiers starting to open fire, the impact of bullets hitting the outermost areas of my armor and the ground around me. I felt one tear slightly through the back of my boot, and I jumped into the teleporter.

As recall wore off, I slowly came to another revelation. This is Hell. And it reeked of shit.


	16. The Sewers

As I took a look around, I noticed that the base had been installed with a septic drainage system, and man, did it need some serious cleaning. This place smelled worse than...well, anything I've encountered. My vomit is just begging to come back up...As I quietly checked my gear, and reloaded my weapons to the point where they would be combat-ready, I headed out, my feet resting in the shit-colored water. The raw smell of ammonia seeped through my nostrils, and I couldn't take it any longer. I leaned over and puked again, wads of caked blood that had dried in my mouth came out, old scabs from bruised lungs re-opened, and blood came out. I hacked and coughed hard, almost certain I'd die not of a demon hoarde, but by coughing a lung out.

As I slowly recovered and regained my posture, I wiped the fresh blood from my lips, taking a deep, refreshing breath. Whatever refreshing would be in this situation. I continued down the wet ditch, my feet sloshing quietly through the water, the water level rising higher. From my ankles to my thighs, I started to pump my legs as I reached the end, Slipping up on the steps to the ledge, my hand reaching down to not lose balance. As I recovered again, I looked to where I had to go next. A ladder.

Now, let me take a quick step back about ladders. I hate ladders. Ladders are the devil. On my first mission, I cracked open my head on a slipperly ladder. I was out for 4 weeks recovering from a head injury to the side of my head, thus why I keep my haircut shaved on the sides, with my bangs long, to the point where they would stop before the eyebrows. Anyway, I was at the ladder...I decided to look at the computer map I had confiscated from the dead marine lieutenant. As I opened it up, there was a small video-disc laying there securely. A prized possession, maybe? This might be some kind of valuable info...This was first priority. I closed the metal casing to the map, the disc inside securely.

As I mounted the ladder, I climbed up the slick rungs to a small elevator shaft. Unfortunately, the word small is an under-estimate. I had to take off my pack and carry it in my lap as the elevator shook slowly downwards, the single light fading in and out. Suddenly, the light flickered off and stayed off. I didn't feel safe from that moment onward. My mind was getting to me. It was too scary to recognize that it was the same clinking and scratching of metal that I had heard from the start. As the elevator stopped, the door opened halfway, creating a gap. I wedged through it, struggling to move my armored torso through. As I finally reached the other side, the elevator started to move down more, until the safety cable snapped lose, and the elevator freefell the remaining 10 floors to the bottom. As I looked down, I could see the little safety light resonating from the crashed elevator. Suddenly, as if from the book of Dante, the flames of what seemed like hell enveloped the elevator, and slowly rose up higher, almost reaching my level.

"Damn..." I said as I turned. The small hell troope scared the bejesus out of me. 2 zombies led by an imp. I would not let them take me un-armed. Thank God for SERE. I quickly tackled the closest grunt, disarmed him and took out the imp with the commandeered rifle, popping him in the sholder. He grimaced in pain and held his sholder for a moment, more than enough time to kill the zombie I had knocked down. His partner already had a bead on me, and was about ready to squeeze off a round or two, until that is I shoved the imp in the way, letting him take the full blunt of the round. He fell and left me with just the zombie left over. He aimed and fired at me. I felt the impact. I felt the pain, and the heat. I groaned and fell, grabbing my chest. The zombie chuckled and shook his head slightly before aiming at my head. I didn't let him. I threw the rifle in my hand at his head, and as he was distracted, Kicked his fucking head in, his nose breaking and bleeding horribly. He fell to his knees and i gripped his rotting hair, shoving my knee repeatedly into his face, the blood spattering everywhere. In a matter of moments, He was dead, twitching violently. I walked over to retrieve my pack and mounted it back on my back, and continued down the slim corridor to the sewage control.

-------------------------------------

"Major Barret, I'm hoping your boy comes through" A voice said quietly through the radio. The Amerigo, the Navy's flagship that was in the immediate vicinity of the distress signal, along with the Ebonson, was counting the minutes until they would fire their nuclear ordinance and send their SEALs to check out the debris.

"I hope you're implying a good consequence from it, Commadore Walls...I assure you, my boy is gifted. Damn gifted. He's the best of the damn best. I assure you that." The response from the Admiral was less than pleased.

And I was here? I should've negated Sid's orders...Why did I listen?...

For the past few hours, I was here with the Major, listening him negotiate for more time for Sid. He was on the verge of being Court-Marshalled more than once in this situation, and he knew it, but he would not back down until he got what he wanted. More time. The Army Commanding General, along with the Cabinet members and chief of staff of the United Powers were talking him down from his stand-off...There were even instances that the crew were put at battle-stations, if there was a moment that the United Powers accused Barret of treason, he would be ready.

"Major, You're being un-reasonable from this. Let the man go. He's probably dead already." One of the Cabinet members said. By now, word of the incident had already reached the U.N, and they were not pleased at the situation. The German Guard were being put on alert from this entire situation, due to the fact that a German space colony was near the affected militarized zone. This was on the verge of spiking our careers to hell if Barret failed his altimatums...

All I was hoping for was for Sid to get out of there in 50 minutes...

----------------------------------------

"This map is a piece of shit!"

The entire sewer was a maze of hellish sewage. From the moment I had entered the control, I had encountered a few imps wandering around, but nothing too serious. After wandering around the main sewage ditches, I found a working door that lead to a dry spot. A mancubus and a few hell princes were there, their backs to me. I walked in, and They must've been doing Yoga or some kind of tantric shit of the sort, because they turned and saw me, immediately roaring and readying their attack. The mancubus fired his volley of rockets, followed by the green flaming plasma of the princes. I rolled behind a pillar as fast as I could, pulling out my chaingun. The rocket launcher at this distance was suicide.

As they stopped for a moment to see their damage estimate, I popped out from behind my cover, and let my gun rip, the barrels spinning against the current of evil, washing away the putrid stench of evil. The few hell-princes were first, falling slowly to the ground. The mancubus, seeing his fellow demons fall to my incoming fire, charged me with as much force as the energizer bunny, his fat mass moving slower than the speed of smell, readying his launchers at me. I fired off a quick burst of fire in his face, the blood spurting out and the pained growl giving me a satisfied look on my face. I had shot out his eyes, and he obviously wasn't happy. He growled and moved around as much as possible, trying to find me with what little eye-sight he had. I ran up to him and climbed his back, grabbing hold of a roll of fat as my other hand reached inside my pack for a loose rocket. As I found one, I shoved it down his throat, his sharp teeth cutting the index finger of my glove off. I smiled and dismounted, running to the next door that was ahead. He turned and saw me, but before he coudl fire off his rockets, I heard a gastric-like bubbling from inside. The fatty groaned and slowly, he erupted into a pile of gibs, the stench resonating through my nostrils and causing me to gag slightly. I looked at the door in front of me, seeing it read the words "Sewage Maintainance".

I had no other choice. I entered and encountered a squad of my former men. They were some of my best. They growled and gripped their arms, taking aim at me as I took cover behind a pillar. I was shocked at their accuracy and...

They spoke.

"Sarge is here! Alert the Master!" One of them yelled. I heard another run in some odd direction as the others slowly walked toward my cover.

"You're very strong, Sarge...But you're not going to make it...once you get past us, You will have to face our leaders. They aer not as kind as we have been...You will die, Sid...Like everyone else that did not convert to us...Us is one. One is many. Many is hell. Hell is pure. Pure is strong. Strong is determined. And Hell will consume Thy Flesh..." They chanted over and over. It was a sick mantra stuck in my head. I growled and aimed my chaingun at them.

"Now without a fight. Not without me trying to win. I will kill every last one of you, be it so." I then unloaded the last of my chaingun rounds on them, tearing them up into shards of musle, skin and blood. I panted quietly, entierly angry with them. They spoke of pure evil. Nothing they had leared from good 'ol sarge... I slowly walked through the next door, seeing an elevator. I got inside and pressed down. I sat down and for the first time, I felt tears sting my eyes. I felt somewhat hopeless. I only had 45 minutes to complete my mission. I would never complete it. I was waiting for death. It was inviting it. But there was this tiny voice inside my head, telling me to keep going. I would follow that voice. I'd listen to it...it sounded soothing and soft, like Naomi. She was someone worth coming home to. I'd do anything for her. I stood up and yelled in anger and fury.

"I won't give up! I won't let myself be corrupted! I will fight!"

I felt the elevator stop slowly and open its doors to me. Only armed with a half full bag, I stepped out; a force to be reckoned with now. They knew I was here finally, and they wouldn't give up. And Neither would I.


	17. The ending before the ending

I looked at my watch, and cursed. Less than enough time to run a timed 2 mile run. I checked my ammo and equipment, and was about to head out, until I heard a unified grunt, almost like a battle cry. I turned around, finally realizing that I was in a secure room. I peeked out the small window that was provided. I wasn't in the complex anymore...It looked like...kinda like my hometown. It was odd. I looked up to the sky. There was none. All there was was a pulsing carapace, throbbing slowly back and forth, while the putrid stench of blood and brimstone thickened.

Slowly, I walked out, the grunts becoming louder and much more clear, the attempt of human speech was astonishing. I could only make out a few words. "Obey...Worship...Virgin...Power..." Then once again, they chanted it, the mantra becoming clearer...

"Obey our leader, satan. Worship his being, sacrifice the virgin blood; For the power lies within the flesh, and the flesh shall be consumed..."

Son of a bitch. These guys were actually getting worse. I peeked over the corner, and saw in the distance, a pit of blood that was flowing upward, with demons, imps, zombies, princes, cacodemons, mancubi, revenants and the last few Arch-Viles were gathering around, kneeling to what looked like a monstrosity of a beast, chanting the mantra over and over. Enough of this satanic nonsense. I pulled out my rocket launcher, and readied my last 30 rockets. I aimed quietly, before I took a look at the huge brute. He stood well over 50 feet, with one arm that had a rocket launcher attached to it, and one of his legs were replaced with a mechanical leg. I had a thought about how bad it would be if I was on the recieving end of that cruise missle launcher...

Enough of this shit. I squeezed the pin and held it as the rockets fired rapidly, the clinking chain spurting out of the ejection port, the aftermath creating a conglomerate of carnage. The hellspawn turned and screamed their battlecries, and began to have at me as best as possible. I had managed to move back behind a corner and through an alley leading to a large opening. The demons were waiting for me on the other side. I pulled out my chaingun and opened fire, becoming ignorant to my surroundings as I began to pump high power rounds into the demons in front of me. They inched closer and closer, the putrid stench of hell filling my lungs. I felt almost hopeless until one fell, then another, and another, all the while snarling and gnashing teeth inched closer still. I took one step back and,

click.

My chaingun went empty. I yelled in frustration and began to bayonet swipe against the tide of evil, the blood spurting out and splashing like a paint can being busted from 20 feet away by triple-zero buck-shot. I kept swinging, my arms becoming extremely heavy, the weight of the chaingun becoming one with my heavy arms. I stabbed, thrusted, slashed and pushed my way through the line of demons that blocked me. I cursed louder, seeing as I had only a few minutes to get to the quantum accelerator. I could taste it.

As I slayed the last demonic entity that was in my way, I charged onward into a building. There lay a rocket launcher, propped up with a few shells. I reached out and picked it up, and the sound of teleporter recall busting next to my ear, the green flash following after. As I turned to see what was coming, my eyes met with those of another demon, followed by his comrades. He then charged two steps forward and opened his gaping hole of a mouth to take a bite out of my sholder, which he did. I groaned in pain and backed out of the building, falling flat on my ass as he and his partners charged toward me. I quickly regained my footing and began to run down the cobblestone road, seeing a white light rise in the near distance. I stopped and turned, seeing that not only were there demons following me, but a few platoons of zombies and imps racing after me. I had no time to waste. I had to shake them loose. I pulled out the new rockets I had picked up and pulled the safety pin out of them, turning a complete 180 and throwing the rocket into the demons' mouth. He amazingly gulped it down, and the explosion after created a chain reaction of in-fighting. That kept them distracted for a long enough time for me to head to the direction of the white light in the distance.

I quickly found out what it was that was bringing me there.

The beheamoth I had seen at the beginning of the area had somehow teleported to a small island surrounded by lava, clomping around with his hooves, the roar resounding afterwards made my ear-drums bleed somewhat as I saw him aim his cruise-missle launcher at me and fired, the sound bursting through the entire environment. I hit the ground and saw the large missles whoosh right over my back, hitting a wall not too far away. The explosion was amazing, the concussion almost knocking me out. I stood back up as I saw the massive rocket launcher reload and become ready to fire again. I didn't stay to see if he'd hit me this time. I quickly ran to the right, where a staircase lay, but I was blocked by a smaller version of that large spider I had ran into. It saw me and quickly buzzed to life, moving its legs rhythmicly toward me. I pulled out my double-barreled shotgun and let him have it at 10 yards. He moved back somewhat, the blood spurting out of him. I quickly cracked open the barrel and refreshed before he had time to re-compose himself. I fired again, and this time he fell over, bloody and dead. I ran and jumped over his corpse, heading up the stairs and to the platform that lay after it. I quickly ran up the small platforms, my sholder spurting out blood every so often as my heart-rate increased. I finally made it to the door, and opened it, seeing a few chaingunners waiting for me. I ducked their first volley and charged at them, thrusting the butt of my shotgun into one's face as the other was too confused to help out his buddy. I smashed my targets' face into pieces, the blood spattering on my face and hands. His buddy finally had enough composure to aim his chaingun, but that was it. I swung my shotgun like a baseball bat and knocked his heavy mass down, then repeatedly shoving the butt into his face, repeating the same process as his buddy, his face caved in and bloody. I looked to the source of the light. By God, the accelerator.

If I could just get up and hurry to it, I can de-activate it...

I stood up and began to run to it, the light shimmering brighter and dimmer as it pulsed with holy-like energy. I kneeled and pulled out my combat knife. I then pulled out the piece of paper that Dr. Howell gave me. I then shoved the blade into the center and tore open a hole.

Big mistake. The accelerator activated and I was sucked in. The feeling was somewhat euphoric, but overly nausiating. As I blacked out, I could see the same image I had seen on the door from a few floors prievous.

The smiling goat's skull...

As I came to, I could see a ugly face in front of me. It looked like it was laughing at me, and I wondered why. Slowly, I touched it and it sucked into me, my wound healing quickly, and my broken armor becoming whole once again. I stood up, feeling like shit, but refreshed. I then looked around. The place was a river of blood, or a pool for the most part. I stepped down and felt no pain. I had probably grown immunities to the acid over time, and I was wondering if it would harm me for the rest of my life. I then checked my watch and realized I had no time to deal with that thought. I then looked around. I was in a Cache of weapons and ammo. Perfect. I quickly took off my backpack and loaded up on plasma cells, rockets, chaingun ammo, .50 cal, 9mm, and...

And...Holy shit.

I looked upon the most beautiful Chainsaw my eyes had set on since 5th Grade. I slowly picked it up and noticed it had a sling, so I could carry the nasty son of a bitch. I smiled and pulled the starting cord. It grumbled slightly then died. I pulled it again, it sputtered and quickly turned over, the roaring coming to life. It nearly scared the living hell out of me. I smiled and turned it off, putting it with the rest of my arsenal. I then walked toward the pool of blood to where it dropped down. I saw a river leading to a broken wall. The area past it looked like pulsing flesh. I started to jog toward it, until I heard the cries of Hell princes. I then ran toward the portal.

As I made recall, I saw the Goat Skull in the distance.

"So...I wonder if you're the one making all the trouble..."

If he was, then It was a showdown, I the hero, he the bad guy. I was just hoping that the good guy would win and live to tell about it.


	18. Showdown and Epilouge: DooM

The smell was revolting. The sounds of hell echoed in my head, repeating over and over again. I took a look around my surroundings and saw two pillars, followed by a flight of stairs which led up to a rock wall, where beyond that, I could see the top of the smiling goat's skull. I stepped off the platform and walked toward the stairs, when the pillars I had walked in between opened up and revealed two alerted arch-viles. I shivered at their battle-cries and backed up, pulling out my double-barrel shotgun. One charged me while the other started to mass its energy to deep-fry me. I squeezed both triggers on one of them, the shells releasing deep into the monster's chest, the blood spurting out slightly. He groaned in pain as he backed up a bit into the line of his partner's fire, becoming engulfed in flames. He screamed in agony as the flames went higher and immediately exploded onto him. He was charred and blown into pieces. I had just finished refreshing my barrels and closed the barrel, when the last one attemped to attack me again. I rushed him with all my strength, ducking under him before he could get a bead on me, and I fired both shells up into his body, tearing him up into rough sections. He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground. I reloaded and looked to the stairs, starting to run up them, to which the rock wall fell and revealed the gate keeper's head, along with my new playmate, the 20 foot beheamoth. I was about to move forward when a voice stopped me cold. It was distorted and garbled up, but it made sense, somehow...

"oremor nhoj, em taeb tsum uoy, emag het niw ot."

I shook my head in dis-belief. The mother actually talked! But his partner wasn't too happy about me wasting all his buddies. I swapped my weapons to my rocket launcher and got ready to do battle...

----------------------------------------

"God-damn it, Admiral, you're not screwing me over!" Colonel Barret had yelled over the radio.

-"Sorry, Colonel, but thats how its gotta be. Your boy has 4 minutes. 6 Tops. We already got our nukes warmed up, so if he doesn't make it, say bye bye to that outpost."

The colonel simply pulled out his pipe and lit it, puffing the smoke for a few moments until he responded.

"Admiral, I don't care if you got nukes warmed up on that outpost. You're not using them without the president's consent. If you do fire them without his approval, then you're looking at a court-marshal, and I don't think thats what you're looking for."

I was still watching this entire thing unfold, my eyes slowly moving to the cruisers outside, to my C.O. on the radio, to the clock above the entrance. My hands were shaking slightly. I had obviously been through hell, but it was nothing compared to Sid. He _was_ in hell, and I don't think I could've lasted as long as him, no matter what I had under my sleeve. He was a fighter.

-"The same can be said for you, Colonel. Your boy has 4 minutes. Period." And with that, the Admiral broke communication, leaving the colonel with a time limit of 4 minutes to work with.

"God-damn it, Sid...hurry up..." He said coldly, his attention focused on the clock, as my eyes were...

-----------------------------------------------

I had already begun my death charge when the goat's head spitted out a six-sided cube with a skull on each side right at me. I moved to my left, avoiding its landing point, where it auto-teleported in a few demons. Great, and I thought it was actually going to be easy. I quickly strafed to my right as I aimed and fired 3 rockets at the ground next to the demons, blowing them sky high, while in the mean time, the huge demon aimed his rocket launcher and fired 3 of his cruise-missle rockets at me, to which I had seen and sprinted as quickly as possible away from them. They hit the wall where the teleporter was and they detonated, demolishing the wall into bits of nothing. I turned to see the demon pace around his little platform, to which I had begun to fire rockets at him, to which the goat fired a few more of his insta-tele-demon cubes at me, all the while I was trying my best to keep the pace, firing rockets, dodging cruise missles and cubes from hitting me, while demons, imps, and other hellspawn rampaged against me. I was becoming massively overwhelmed, and my cries of anger and pain were enough to compensate. In the duration of one entire day, I had killed, ravaged, punched, torn apart, anything you can name off, I had done it, except...

The chainsaw. With one movement, I swiped it up from my reserve belt and pulled the cord, the toothed companion roaring to life as I began to charge right into the mass of evil itself. I could hear cutting, the chainsaw working its ass off to kill anything and everything it touched. I then began to swing like a madman, left, right, side to side, thrusting and swinging over my head, cutting up as many as I could, their cries of pain and death satisfying my blood-lust I had earned in this horrific trip to a demon's paradise. My arms felt heavy once again, and yet I continued, my cries and yells becoming much more demonic like those of an imp, but more humanistic. I continued to swing my fury coming out into an array of blades. The 20 foot tall monster continued firing his rockets, hitting stragglers and wounded as I fought through the mass of them, the endless waves continuing to approach me. I felt almost hopeless, but not yet. I kept going, until I ran out of room.

I lost my footing and fell, the chainsaw falling out of my blood soaked, slick hands, and landing next to my head, raging and thrashing around. I grabbed ahold of it before it could do any damage to me. I then saw that I was in a small trench where a switch lay. I pressed it, and the pillar in front of me slid downward. I looked down, just as a stray missle exploded behind me. I fell in and landed on my back, dazed and hurt, some blood coming out of my mouth. The pillar rose again with me on it, and I saw up close the skull I was starting to envy and dispise at once. I quickly pulled out my rocket launcher and fired as many as I could into the spot where the cubes were flying out, cursing and yelling at the top of my lungs. I counted one going in as it exploded inside its brain and it roared loud enough for God himself to hear. The pillar moved down again, and I was faced with the cyber-tronic demon aiming his cruise missle spitter at me. I aimed my rocket launcher and fired as many rockets as I could, standing up at the same time, the cubes flying out in rapid succession, the legions of demons and hellspawn clamboring behind me. I then jumped off the pillar back onto the original surface, where all the deadly hellspawn awaited me. I didn't have time to pull out my chainsaw, so I holstered my weapon and put my fists up. I then charged them, grabbing ahold of an imp and kicking him into the swarm of death. I knew for a fact that I couldn't keep this up, so as soon as I got enough room between me and the hoardes of spawn, I pulled out my chainsaw, revving it up again as the demons charged me again, the rockets still flying. I knew I had to get back to that platform, and quick if I wanted to get out of here, I realized that the rocket probably hurt the skull badly, and I needed to get rid of him. I quickly fought my way back to the platform and began the steps, pressing the switch, going down on the platform and going back up, my rocket launcher firing at the skull. A few of them missed its mark, but at least 2 of them actually made it inside. The demon roared, and most of the hellspawn simply keeled over and died, their blood covering the surface of the rock, the blood falling like a waterfall. Suddenly, the skull crumbled, and the dust began to rise.

Slowly my eyes turned to face the monstrosity that was the CyberDemon. He stopped shooting his massive rocket launcher and he himself looked. Surely I saw a look of terror on its face as it slowly lurched around and aimed its rockets at the even larger demon spawn. Surely the mother of all demons in my eyes...

"Holy..." I muttered slowly, as the large worm-like entity screeched louder than anything I had heard before, the CyberDemon then began to fire at it, its rockets doing absolutely nothing to it. The mother demon then did a movement with its' hands and it slowly destroyed the Cyberdemon, all that remained was his launcher and his leg. I slowly stepped back, only to fall off the platform and land on my feet. My eyes never tore away from this awesome vision, and yet...I wanted to go. I wanted to fight it. I could feel the rage boiling up inside of me. I gripped my rocket launcher tighter as I almost aimed at it, but it spoke to me, it was a female whisper, soft and almost mother-like, as I had suspected.

"You are a worthy match for my children...Consider yourself lucky that they did not kill you from the beginning. My legions are spent, and you are the victor. But, Before you go, I must tell you your fate."

I listened, my eyes dazed and slightly bloody from both my injuries and the blood sprays of the demons, my hands loosening their grip on the rocket launcher as I payed attention.

"...You will be locked in the gates of hell after your mortal death. You will then be tossed to the demons for food. Be lucky you have survived. You may go now and live your precious life..." And with that, the demon disappeared, leaving me alone, with the corpses of about a few thousand hellspawn. Slowly, from the corpse of the goats' skull, A portal began to open, a blue light shooting up, much similar to the one I saw in the familiar city not too long ago. I was split a few feet away from it by a pool of blood. I jumped down and the pain set in once again, my feet pumping slowly to the portal. As I slowly stepped in, I felt twisted and torn as my weapons left me behind, along with my armor.

I slowly opened my eyes to see metal floor and a bright light above. My cuts and bruises were still there, and they were gushing out badly. Before I had passed out, I reached into my pocket to pull out the computer map with the disc in it. My vision dimmed and I fell into a deep sleep.

"Sid..."

My eyes opened slightly, but they closed again. I could hear something, but I wasn't sure...

"Sid..."

Once again, my eyes opened and closed. I didn't want to wake up from this good rest.

"Sid!"

A hand hit my face, and I opened my eyes fully. I sat up, dazed and confused, and partially naked. At least the bedsheet was covering me. My eyes then slowly moved to see the red hair of my Lieutenant.

"Christ, Sid...you're a heavy sleeper." She was holding my hand at that moment and I smiled slightly, taking a deep breath.

"...Its good to see you again, Naomi..." It was clear I missed her, the look on my face was priceless.

"Sergeant." A male voice said in the doorway. I turned to see Colonel Barret with that same disc in his hand. "Where did you find this?"

I scratched my head, trying to remember. "Howell. His corpse, at least. Found it in a demons' stomach, Sir...something wrong?"

"...You've saved countless lives, Sergeant. That disc had files of private military funding, research, development and many other projects that are vital to human-kind. Dr. Howell was acting as a double agent and he had stolen these files, killing a few guards in the process. We were in a bit of a bind...but-"

He was cut off by the sound of an explosion outside the window. I looked myself to see the result of a nuclear warhead detonating in the distance. I smiled slightly. "Good bye, hell."

The colonel looked at me sharply before a small smile crawled onto his face. "Its good to see you alive, Sergeant...Or should I say, Captain..."

I looked somewhat surprised at the idea that I was getting promoted that high, but it was fine, seeing as I would be in charge of a company of Rangers, than just a platoon. Naomi would still be by my side, and that was good.

"Sir...Are we going home now?" I asked quietly, a slight tone of worry in my voice, which was as rare as the colonel without his pipe.

"Already on the way. We'll be home in 2 hours. Just rest up, Soldier." He said as he rested a hand on my sholder. I felt relieved to be around people now, especially after my encounter with all those demons. I knew for a fact that I'd be having nightmares for a long time, long after all this was a memory, it would be re-living itself in my head, and I was fine with that. I was just being remembered what was in store for me in the future.

That night, I was still in the infirmary bed, asleep. My arms tensed up, along with the rest of my body. I felt the rage boiling up inside of me, but I didn't know why. Suddenly, I woke up thrashing around slightly, my breathing heavy, cold sweat on my forehead. I could still taste their blood in my mouth, and my old wounds still hurt, the skin throbbing slightly, with a hint of pain fresh in my memory. I didn't know why it hurt. Were they still here?...

The next morning, I told the doctor what had happened during the night, and he moved me to the psycology room, running tests and the whatnot of the conscious and sub-conscious. Eventually, the doctor told me that I was suffering from PTSD, or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. He said that it was severe, and that it might force me to leave the army. I refused that option, and I had made my decision to stay in the army. After arriving at home and all the parades and whatnot, me and Naomi got hitched during the winter, while we were stationed in Italy. 10 months after the ordeal, and everything was going fine...

But I knew...I knew deep inside myself, that Doom was right on my front door, and all it needed was an oppertunity.

During our honeymoon, Naomi pointed to a statue of two marines, one male and the other female.

"Look Sid...those are the saviors of Earth, as they call them...Flynn Taggart and Arlene Sanders..."

I let go of her hand and walked up to the small inscription in it.

_This statue is dedicated to all those who gave their lives defending humanity. The two marines, Flynn and Arlene, gave their lives to defend humanity as many others have. To the ones who will never return, we salute you._

"..." I didn't say a word as I walked back to Naomi and let a small smile pass. "Lets go...We got 2 days left until we're requested back on base."

(End.)


End file.
